Camino French Way 2019 – Page 2

September 23, 2019

Day 14: Rabanal to Acebo (Monday, Sept 23)

Oh, What a Beautiful Day…For the Most Part

Despite the cold, and the immediate sprinkles we encountered upon exiting our charming Posada lodging, we donned our rain gear with smiles.

Matching raincoats (that’s a story for another time) and matching buffs (from our Safari in February), we take our morning selfie. I was trying out a new system whereby I wore my hat under the hood of my raincoat so that I wouldn’t have to have monovision through the hood. It worked great. Just call me Sister Bertrille.

September 23, 2019

Day 13: Astorga to Rabanal del Camino (Sunday, Sept. 22)

Uphill and Into a Head Wind ALL DAY LONG

When we left our hotel in Astorga it was 47 degrees Fahrenheit. No rain, but brisk. We knew we had a steady uphill walk from our walking notes, and for a while looked forward to generating some body heat.

Except for the wind. Blowing right in our faces the whole way. Uphill.

This is the “trip tick” we check every day to get an idea of how flat, up and down, mostly up or mostly down our walk will be. The walking notes said that today we would be making our way **gradually** [emphasis mine] up the foothills of the Leon Mountains. This picture makes it look like a stroll. It. Was. Not.

September 23, 2019

Day 12: Mazarife to Astorga (Saturday, Sept. 21)

We walked right out the front door of Mercedes’ home, took a right past the clothes line and vegetable garden and intersected the Camino as it followed the train tracks.

Mercedes is on the right and her sister whose name I can’t remember left. Below they are in the country house kitchen.

September 20, 2019

Day 11: Leon to Mazarife (Sort Of)

The talk around the Peregrino table last night was who’s taking a taxi to the edge of Leon and who’s walking the whole way out of town. Walking through city streets is not our favorite thing to do, but Donna and I decided not to skip seeing the rest of the city.

Look what we would have missed if we took the taxi! Behind the Basilica we found this K marker. Our Camino from Burgos is 500K, so in the next day or so we should hit our half-way mark.

September 19, 2019September 20, 2019

Day 10: A Day to Play in Leon

This says it all. We did set an alarm, however. We wanted to be sure we didn’t miss breakfast, which was served until 10:30 a.m. I am proud to announce that Donna and I both woke naturally in time to make it down to breakfast.

September 19, 2019

Day 9: Mansilla de las Mulas to Leon (The End of the Meseta)

We were excited to be heading to Leon, which is the last big city on the Camino. We have a day off planned for Day 10, Sept. 19, so we were also looking forward to sleeping in and giving our feet and backs a rest.

Walking along the road—again—we looked back to say good bye to the Meseta.

September 18, 2019

Day 8: Burgos de Ranero to Mansilla de las Mullas

More of the same, but a great destination

We realized as we were close to walking into our last night before the big city of Leon that neither one of us had taken many pictures. It was pretty much the same as the last few days on the Meseta. Crops, tree lined path along the road (for which are always grateful—shade).

Here we are with our morning selfie, happy to have such lush foliage of a tree shading our path. Hence no hat or sun glasses.

September 17, 2019

Day 7: Sahagún to El Burgos Ranero

We leave Sahagún, passing the grand arch that was not the passageway through which we entered the city. Turns out that this city is the half-way point along the Camino Frances, IF you started in St. Jean Pie de Port. We did not start there. But the arch is pretty cool.

September 15, 2019

Day 6: Calzadilla de la Cueza to Sahagún

Oh, what a 23K day.

We got an early (for us) start hoping to arrive at our destination by 4 p.m. which was when rain was predicted to start there. It had rained during the night, so the predicted 8 a.m. bout didn’t materialize as we walked out the door of our hostel.

A hostel, by the way that proved you can’t judge a book by its cover. When we arrived there yesterday, we looked at each other and said, “Really?”

The rooms, thankfully, were in the white part of the building.

September 14, 2019September 15, 2019

Day 5: Carrion de Los Condes to Calzadilla de la Cueza

OK, now we know why some people choose to bike or even skip the Meseta. I’m glad we didn’t, but it is, indeed, a long, hot stretch of nothing but crops, dust and flies. I am a big believer in the notion that you find what you’re looking for, so Donna and I made a point of looking for things that we could be grateful for.