Vaughantown: Day 3 continued - The Village and Setting Alcohol on Fire in the Dark

pictures from town...




The river Carrión (I doubt it means "dead flesh" in this respect... at least I hope not.)







The Monastary San Zoilo in the distance



Spanish steps... but not those...







Statue of Father Miguel de Benavides, third Archbishop of Manila from 1603 to 1605, and founder of the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He was born in Palencia, Spain. More info about his life can be found HERE


Iglesia de San Andres



Iglesia de Nuestra Sra. de Belen




Iglesia de Santiago. Yes, this little town has like, 7 churches or something. But most of them are very historical, dating to the middle ages.












A tribute to the Marques de Santillana - A famous Castillian poet born in Carrion de los Condes in 1398.






A statue of Santa Maria del Camino



HAH!


Hah Hah! Later we found out that "crack" in Spanish slang means someone who is the best at something - in almost a mocking way.



That evening, we were treated to a Queimada ceremony, which is supposedly ancient and supposed to help ward off spirits. It involves setting ORUJO, or the Spanish version of grappa - or must-wine - on fire (VERY high alcohol content, there!), adding some "magical" things into the punch, and burning it for 15 minutes or so while a trio recites the incantation in Gallego, Castellano (Spanish), and English. When you do it in the dark with a computer video of a fire in the background with "scary" music, it just gets hilarious. But whooooo... the hot punch was gooood.


Sorry these pics are so dark. Oh well.





Then, of course, you need to do karaoke. Of course.

Vaughantown: Days 2 and 3

The hotel lobby

More of the same... more talking... more meeting amazing, warm, wonderful people. During our break hours, we wander around the monastary and find interesting (and sometimes creepy) things.



Hallway near our room




When we can, we try to go in groups to the nearby village of Carrion de los Condes.

... when the rain lets up.



Small chapel connected to the old church that is part of the monastary


Inside the old church - pipe organ



The monastary/hotel courtyard



JD finds a secret passageway to the church



The excavated old jail cells for "bad monks". They are only about 6 feet tall by 3 feet wide by 4 feet deep.



The cloister






Ahh... it's good to be the Captain.








The altar of the old church






Sarcophagi in the church dating to the middle ages


It's been raining almost nonstop for the past few days, with brief respites. I think the sun came up for a total of 5 hours over the last 48 hours.



Outside the hotel