Finally! A change in the weather. Yes it was a little chilly upon leaving our apartment in Sahagún, but the skies were clear and there was no wind.
We didn’t make it an early start, but we didn’t have a long day either. We stopped to shoot a photo at a pilgrim staff and rock, then across the old stone bridge and out of town.
It is 6 and a half miles to the first town, a fact roundly disappointing to everyone we know and met. The guides show a town at less than three, but the route splits today and that town is on the route we weren’t taking.
We hiked up to a freeway interchange. This is where the route splits. The northern route goes up and over the freeway on an overpass. The southern route parallels the freeway for another 3 or 4 miles before crossing under it. We were on the southern route.
We finally came into Bercianos del Real Camino. The restaurant we sat at last time no longer had red chairs. We could see a few fellow pilgrims seated in red chairs up the street. We joined them.
Here we met Jean from Belgium, a bike rider. He was going to stop at an airport just a few miles up the road. He had chartered a plane he was going to fly to get a look around the countryside.
After our 20 minute rest we moved on.
From this point on the path is lined with trees on one side. I thought they were sycamore trees, but they identified as London Plain trees, a hybrid sycamore. They shade the trail beautifully. I checked photos from last time we were here because i remember these trees, but wow, had they grown a lot in just four years.
The weather was now beginning to turn nasty. Large thunderheads were beginning to build. It looked like we had plenty of time before they cranked open and dumped on us. Becky had been walking with us all day. She was suffering from shin splints on her left leg and decided to try slowing down to lessen the pain, but when Sally and I stopped 2 miles from town to make a lunch of tuna and cheese sandwiches she continued on to town ahead of us. We arrived about an hour after her. We were sure we had three bunks in a common room, but turned out we had a private room with three beds. I had called to reserve this one. The woman on the phone spoke no English and with my broken Spanish I had hoped we had a private room, but wasn’t sure. This was a pleasant surprise.
We spent the rest of the afternoon washing clothes, making reservations for the remainder of our nights to Santiago and blogging. We made reservations for dinner at 7 at one of the two restaurants in town.
The dinner was amazing. Two courses, wine, water, bread and dessert-standard pilgrim meal, but it was the best meal we have had. Sally and Becky had ham and melon for their first course, I had seafood Paella. We all had salmon and salad for the second course with ice cream bars for dessert.
Sally is so at home on the Camino. Everyday there is many new people to meet. At dinner tonight she was sharing her bottle of wine with the other tables because she had a whole bottle to herself because I don’t drink and Becky doesn’t drink wine. She invites Patricia from France to eat dessert with us. She went and got her and her plate and moved her over with us at our table. Sally couldn’t tolerate Patricia eating by herself. After the meal she introduced herself to two gentlemen outside. One was an author of a book on the Camino. We scurried back to our room about 8:45, just before the thunder ripped the skies open and the rain fell in torrents. I was I in bed asleep when it started and it woke me up. Couldn’t believe how hard it rained. Another amazing day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment