Almost no room at the inns

The last several day since leaving Burgos there have been many more pilgrims on the road.  Whereas prior to Burgos there were times in the afternoon when we would only see one other person on the trail, now there is a steady stream of people all day long.  At anytime we will see 20 - 30 people on the road with us.

When we arrived in Carrion del Camino around 2:30 we were excited because the town had two hostels run by nuns in monasteries, and we thought that might be a fun place to stay.

First we went to the Monastary of Espirito Santo.  90 beds.  FULL.
The sisters sent us to the Monastary of Santa Clara.  29 beds.  FULL.
They suggested we try the hostel of Santa Maria, also run by nuns.  52 beds.  FULL.
Now we were getting a little worried.  We knew there were many more pilgrims behind us coming into town.

One of the nuns at Santa Maria suggested we try the hostel run by nuns at Nossa Senora de Belen. (Boy are there a lot of nuns in this town!). We got directions and headed there. Got lost twice along they way, but did finally make it.  They did have rooms, but only 2 person rooms for 22 euros ea. We took it and were glad to have it, even though it busted the budget for the second night in a row.

Home for the night with the nuns of Nosa Senora de Belen.

After a shower we walked around town. We were back at the Santa Maria church, just about to look inside when someone asked if we were going to hear the nuns sing at 6.  It was 2 min to 6. We said sure and followed the group next door to where we had been turned away earlier.  In their lobby and all up the stairs were pilgrims waiting.  The four sisters introduced themselves and began singing.

Singing nuns of Santa Maria.

It was beautiful.  There were 4. One from Germany, one from Spain, one from Hungary, and one from Panama. They were the staff that ran the pilgrim hostal. They all volunteered for this assignment to aid pilgrims on their journey on the Camino de Santiago. There were about 40 pilgrims present. We went around the room and introduced ourselves, told our country, and why we were doing the Camino. Many languages. After about a half hour they sang us the pilgrim prayer, then one came around and laid her hands on each person’s head and blessed them with the sign of the cross while the others continued singing.


Then they gave us each a gift that they make each day.  They cut out stars from paper and paint them. This represents the light they want us to take with us on the journey, but they made sure it was light enough not to weigh us down.

Stars given to us by the sisters of Santa Maria.

This is their calling that they do every day for total strangers. It was all so very moving.