Return to Our Routes

No longer do we have bike shame. We don't have to hide our bikes around back or play off our helmet hair as just another bad hair day...or in my case bad head day. No longer do the Ks just click by. But we have returned to our bipedal roots and the challenges that walking upright brings. We are back on the Bierly recommended stages and should finish just in time if all goes well.

We started our day with Seamus shouting something about coffee and tea being on at 6:15am. Breakfast was coffee and a slice of bread. This is a pilgrimage after all. Seamus was pouring coffee and collecting black garbage bags of clothes from several pilgrims battling bed bugs. Their clothes were to be washed and dried HOT! Their bags and packs would be fumigated. Most would spend another day in Leon.

By the time we exited the Santa Maria the last of Leon's residents were finding their way home from last evening's festivities. Getting home late in Spain means 8 am!!

Getting in and out of the bigger cities requires traversing sprawl and industrial zones. It's not the most scenic walking but it was better exiting to the west than it was entering from the east. In a small suburb we stopped for a snack and it was wonderful! We decided to try the local torrija which was explained as having eggs, milk and cinnamon. We hit a home run. Think french toast without the bread.

We diverged on an optional route through desolation and pigeon hunters and passed a small memorial to a Belgian pilgrim who was killed under unknown circumstances recently. Seamus had told us all about it. That fallen pilgrim was not given the chance to finish his ninth Camino.

The clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. We could see snow on the distant mountains. The previously shed layers were reapplied and then some. It really got COLD! The weather has turned. We are now dealing with the cold rather than the searing afternoon sun.

I found my first mushroom but did not risk consumption although it smelled really good. Today's stage only called for 22k and that was a nice way to ease back into the boots. We are now under 300k to Santiago.

We are staying at a great albergue in Villar de Mazarife called Meson Tio Pepe. Tio himself just poured my cerveza at the attached bar. Life is good. Buen Camino!