Passed the halfway point, now in Sahagun (Tu 24 Sep)

We are in day 3 or 4 of the Meseta, and we are enjoying it, but have to admit the first couple days of it were the best so far.  More rugged, more varied terrain.  Still pretty, still some unexpected and beautiful sights, but also plenty of sameness.  In these bits, you get into a bit of a rhythm and enter a more contemplative state, so it's all good.

We passed the halfway mark according to our guidebook and that sent a slight tremor through us. We are generally so in the moment, so into our daily routine, so enjoying ourselves, that we felt like the Camino would last forever and now realizing the end is nearing induced a mid-Camino mini-crisis.  More on that later.

Today's highlights in pix:

More hobbit homes -- our guidebook calls them bodegas, which implies a wine cellar, but some have chimneys and TV antennas, so a lot more going down in these places:

I'm fascinated by the mud/straw dwellings, often just a final coat over brick, like this lovely little house:

I guess it was a sky blue day.  In the same town, three dogs are awaiting a ride to who knows where:

And this bridge caught my eye:

After walking past countless fields of sunflowers with heads nodding, heavy with seed, we finally saw a field harvested:

And the harvesting machine:

Even sampled a few and they were great!

Reached our destination, Sahagun where we had decided to try to get a bed at a Benedictine Convent.  Guidebook  "peace, quiet, courtyard, home cooking."  Who could resist?  It was all but the latter:

Courtyard, with an outside sink and washboard for washing clothes ...

... And you hang your clothes upstairs:

Ruins just  outside the convent:

I got a kick out of this shirt.  They appear to be legit peacekeepers:

Facade/gate as you leave town:

Our little dinner party.  Jan, Tom (UK who we keep bumping into for the past 2 weeks), George from Chester NS). Directly across from Jan, Irene and Trisha from Ireland who we walked with for an hour or so the past couple days).  Soup was excellent, so we expected a sterling 2nd course, but it was fries, cheese croquettes and fried ham.  Hoping we'd end on a high note, dessert was a tub of plain yogurt, accompanied by a packet of sugar.  One of our worst meals ever.  Oh well...