Jimandi

We took advantage of our off day by sleeping to 7:30, then walking toward the bus station, stopping along the way to get breakfast.

The bus station in being renovated, so a temporary area with ticket kiosks, rest rooms and small shops was enclosed at one end of the area where buses arrive and depart.

We were approached by an official but very nice young lady who answered all our questions in English and even gave us a bus schedule. She also showed us where our bus will be located when we board tomorrow morning!

For Camino2022, we want to by-pass walking through the western outskirts of Leon, which offer eight or so miles of city walking with traffic, inconsistent sidewalks, then highly industrial areas and then roadside paths or shoulder walking.

Based on our findings this morning, we will walk to the bus station tomorrow morning, leaving the hotel around 7:30 to arrive at a bar just a few steps from the station and have breakfast. Our bus to Hospital de Orbigo departs at 9:00 am from Leon and arrives at 9:33. We will purchase tickets for 6€ each from the driver when boarding the bus.

We will disembark just outside Hospital de Orbigo (where we stayed in 2015 and 2019) and will begin our walk for the day.

With our logistics planning done, we began working our way back toward our hotel, and as always, enjoying the beautiful new and old buildings that remarkably blend together so well throughout this nearly 2000 year old city.

We made stops along the way to buy a few items we anticipate we’ll need on the remaining weeks to Santiago. Items like a replacement belt that broke on Jim’s shorts, a long sleeve shirt that Jim forgot to pack, some warm tights for Linda, replacement batteries for our headlamps, etc.

We also needed to find and buy an additional credential for stamps to verify/prove that we walked the necessary distance to Santiago to earn a Compostela. The single credentials we started with won’t have enough space for all the stamps we will collect for our nearly 60 day journey.

We unloaded our purchases at our room, then walked across the plaza to have a pizza lunch at the Boccalino Hotel restaurant.

After lunch we visited the beautiful building we’ve been viewing from our room.

The basilica, Real Colegiata de San Isidoro was commissioned by Fernando I to house relics returned by Muslims after their defeat in the Reconquista.

The relics of San Isidoro of Seville (ca. 560-636) are housed in the basilica. Adjacent to the basilica is a museum and pantheon that includes the remains of 11 kings, 12 queens and a number of other princes, princesses, counts and other nobles. It also contains the chalice of Doña Urraca, the daughter of King Ferdinand I and Queen Sancha, the Holy Grail, reputed to be the goblet used by Christ at the Last Supper!

We pretty much chilled for the rest of the day.

In spite of our “day off” we still managed to walk another 4.5 miles today, around Leon, but not to be included in our total for Camino2022.

So tomorrow it’s back on the Camino for our final 180 miles to Santiago.

Walked Today: 4.1 mi / Camino2022: 204 mi.

The rain had stopped when we left our room and walked through one of the Manzilla de Las Mulas gates this morning, then rejoined the Camino.

The path ran parallel to a busy road and shortly became the shoulder of the busy road. Our plan today was to walk to the next village, Puente de Villarente, then get a taxi or bus into Leon. The path into Leon is not very interesting with multiple road crossings, industrial and highways, none adding much to the experience, so it seemed like a good section to skip.

A half mile short of our destination, we spotted a bus stop, occupied by two pilgrims. Jim walked over to them an inquired about the bus schedule. They replied, “the bus to Leon arrives in 10 minutes.

So, opportunistic pilgrims that we are, we joined our fellow opportunists and boarded the bus …

…and enjoyed our 15 minute ride into Leon (1.45€ each).

Walking into Leon (and out) has never been much fun but walking in and around the center of Leon is a pure delight. We really love this place.

We walked the 3/4 mile from the bus station to our hotel, grabbing breakfast along the the way. Our room was ready and we checked in immediately.

First item on the agenda was to go to Valor, a restaurant specializing in churros, Linda’s favorite. We also added some tasty sandwiches and called it lunch.

We chatted with two charming ladies from Holland who were with a group touring northern Spain. One of the ladies had walked the Camino 25 years ago.

We stretched out lunch with people-watching from our lunch table, then walked around re-famiarizing ourselves with landmarks and getting re-oriented after a 3 year absence.

The rest of the afternoon and evening included making reservations for the next few weeks, settling into our “habitación” for our two day stay in a most favorite Camino location.

We’re taking a break tomorrow, so no advancing on Camino2022, but we’ll give a brief report on whatever mischief we got into on one of our rare “days off” when walking the Camino.

Walked Today: 8.2 mi /Camino 2022: 200 mi

Even without alarms, our bodies are now on automatic to wake at 6:00 a.m.! So off we went into the dark, expecting rain at any minute, but not wearing our ponchos, yet.

We felt some light sprinkles just before entering Burgo Ranero… but they went away as we stepped into our “routine” breakfast stop, La Costa el Adobe.

Our first thoughts were remembering our breakfast rendezvous on September 5, 2017 with Ken and Mandy, special Camino friends from South Africa and fellow bloggers. They are planning a return to the Camino in 2023. A cafe con leche toast to you both and Buen Camino!

We called a taxi to take us to Reliegos. He arrived a half-hour later and we hopped into his car. We both were surprised when we saw the inside, which looked familiar.

We had a very nice chat for the next 12 miles as we covered a section of the Camino that we didn’t like too much and which dropped our total walk to just over 8 miles. The driver spoke very good English and we learned that he had lived in Texas and California. Jim asked if he had solar cells at home and he said yes, but not batteries… “generated his own electricity during the day and bought it during the night.” He charged us 18€ for the ride, a very quiet one, and wished us well as we put on our ponchos and began walking in the rain.

We continued for the next 3 miles walking in a light rain but comfortable and dry in our ponchos.

The rain we are experiencing is forecast to continue through tomorrow afternoon. It is the remnants of Hurricane Danielle which affected mostly the western coast of Portugal on September 11-12 with rain and strong winds. We are seeing rain and wind, but nothing approaching hurricane strength.

We arrived in Mansilla de Las Mulas just before noon and waited 30 minutes for our room to be ready.

We took the next several hours to find an open restaurant for our main meal, dodging showers in between, then settled back into our warm, dry room for the remainder of the day.

Walked Today: 7.5 mi / Camino2022: 192 mi

Today was going to be a shorter walk, after hoofing it more than 8 miles the previous two days. It actually started out just as planned. We left our hotel at 6:45 and walked for about 2.5 miles in the dark. We reached a junction just outside of Calzada de Coto where the Camino splits. Going through Calzada results in walking an extra 3 miles and it misses Bercianos completely, where we have reserved for the night.

We missed the poorly/confusingly marked split-off in 2014 and walked nearly into Calzada, before a local resident pointed us in the correct direction. Having learned from our 2014 near goof, in 2017 and 2019, we carefully maneuvered through the junction and were merrily on our way. Today was a different story.

We remembered not to go right at the junction, but we went too far left and missed the Camino entirely. Not realizing we had found a new way to goof, we continued walking for over a half-mile until we realized that nothing around us looked familiar.

Jim pulled out the Google Earth app so we could see the actual area from above and when we saw what had happened, we looked for a way to take a short cut back onto the Camino. We cut across a couple of mowed fields to a farm road the angled over to the Camino. (If we had remembered that it was at the junction that the Camino becomes a path with evenly spaced trees to provide shade all the way into Leon, we would have become aware of our wrong turn much sooner. What a difference 3 years makes!)

The map below shows our path, then reversing course, then cutting across the fields, then returning to the Camino.

This unplanned deviation added an extra 1.6 miles to today’s walk!

Adding to our excitement, forecasted showers had been threatening all morning long. We delayed putting our rain gear on mainly because we were focused on getting “unlost”! With less than a quarter mile to go, small water droplets began falling. We walked faster, entered the albergue gates, hustled inside and ordered breakfast. No sooner had we taken our first sip of cafe con leche, when the heavens opened up! For the next 20-30 minutes, thoroughly drenched pilgrims came charging up the sidewalk, into the front door, while we watched… warm and dry in the refuge.

We stayed at La Perala in 2019, soon after its opening. It is a very nice albergue, owned and operated by the same family that owns and operates Albergue Los Templarios, where we stayed two days ago.

The hospitality demonstrated by our hosts was unsurpassed today. Every member of the staff went out of their way to make sure that our stay was satisfying. They were each well organized, friendly and striving to please…. at 40€ per night for a double room, ensuite bathroom, large shower, good food, plenty of comfortable sitting areas in a warm, relaxed environment.

We had interesting conversations with a guy from Holland, as well as a former Michelin employ who lives in Leon, France and was walking his Camino from there. We also chatted with a young lady from Germany, and a lady from Sarasota, Florida, among others.

We’ll hopefully get our shorter walk day, tomorrow and have shut off our alarms tonight, accordingly. It’s amazing how our miscue this morning was so quickly overcome and lost among so many positive experiences and encounters during the rest of the day.

Walked Today: 8.3 mi / Camino2022: 184 mi

It was a warm, humid 62F when we left Los Templarios at 6:35 this morning. Our first rest/breakfast stop was a little more than 2 miles down the path, in Moratinos.

Shortly after, while walking to the next hamlet, we looked over our shoulder and saw a nice sunrise.

Another two miles later, we made our second rest/breakfast stop. Before arriving in San Nicolas del Real Camino, we passed a sign regarding one of the two bars/ albergues in the hamlet.

We stopped at the first bar, a favorite, from prior Caminos. We have stayed in the albergue (2014) of bar number 2 and eaten there also Both bars have good food, based on our experience.

Just outside of San Nicolas…., the Camino pulled alongside of N-120, going into Sahagún. We then walked the next 4 miles, arriving at our hotel at 10:40 and check-in.

Our room was still being cleaned, so we waited on the hotel terrace until 12:00, when we accessed our room and began unloading and organizing our stuff for the afternoon and evening.

We decided to walk 7 minutes to a supermarket to gather some snacks for the next several days. By then, it was 1:30, so we took a seat in the hotel dining room for our main meal of the day.

The owner/ waiter brought us a menu in the form of scribblings on a small piece of paper, and proceeded to go down the list quickly in Spanish (did we mention that people around here are all fluent in Spanish, for some reason, and mostly assume everyone else is too?) making it clear by demonstrating on our first question, that all responses were going to be in even faster Spanish. Jim, whose stomach growl could be heard by Linda, chose something with included the word pasta for his 1st course, and after asking about the last item on the list and understanding nothing.,. said he’d take that one. Linda followed a similar approach picking an item with tomato in the description and the word pollo (chicken).

So, what was the verdict on Jim’s mystery selection for course 2?

What do you think?

The rest of the day was spent napping, blogging, etc. Long walk, feeling strong, having fun on the Camino Frances.

Walked today: 8.9 mi /Camino2022: 176 mi

After walking in the dark for nearly a half-hour, the scenery around us was still the same as yesterday.

We reached Carrion de los Condes after 3.5 miles and stopped for breakfast at La Corte, a very nice restaurant/albergue.

We’ve had two dinners and now, two breakfasts here. As soon as we finished eating, we asked the waiter to please call us a taxi, which arrived at 8:30.

The driver took us to Calzadilla de la Cueza, which is located at the end of the walk from Carrion, which offers 11 miles with no shade and no services… one of the longest stretches without a town on the Camino Frances.

The next 3 plus miles were quite pleasant. Even though we walked along a two lane, lightly traveled road the entire way, the natural shrubs and trees mostly blocked our view of the road and provided ample shade to mitigate the ever increasing heat from the sun.

Just after leaving the dirt path before entering Ledigos, we encountered some nice pilgrim art, created from nearby stones.

Ledigos is a very small village with brick and adobe buildings. Nevertheless, it has two nice albergues. It was nearly 11:00 so we stopped at the newest one and had “smoothies”!

The walk out of Ledigos was beautiful. A huge birch tree also captured our attention on the way out.

Albergue Los Templarios was not open until noon, so we made ourselves at home on the front porch (in the shade) and discovered the wifi was strong and the password was the same as 2019 (both our phones remembered).

At 11:50, the owner opened the front door, welcomed us inside and we were soon in our room.

We took advantage of the laundry service to wash our clothes (4€) and we hung them out to dry ourselves.

We had ensalada mixta’s for lunch. The afternoon was spent enjoying the property. We had nice chats with two guys, both retired, from Stuttgart, Germany and a British couple currently working in Madrid. They were both nurses, walking their first Camino. We talked about our recent Camino experiences and their experiences working in medical facilities during the pandemic.

We had a dinner in the albergue dining room and retired to our room at 8:30.