Day 7 - Sahagun to Leon

A flat day with no difficult climbs. We are coming towards the end of the Meseta and the day provided clear skies and the wind only picking up for the last hour into Leon. 31°C by lunchtime. 

We set off from our quirky hostel around 9:00 and almost immediately got onto an abandoned road.  It was to stretch for 30km passing through the small villages of Bercianos del Real Camino, El Burgo Ranero and Reliegos to Mansilla de las Mulas. The road was flanked the whole way by the Camino footpath which itself was lined by Plane trees planted every 10m. That’s around 3,000 trees! The church towers and other tall structures have huge storks nests on them. The first 40 trees leaving the village of El Burgo Ranero (from the village centre to the end of the graveyard) had been “yarnbombed” with little jackets on their trunks.

Mansilla de las Mulas is the last town before Leon. Derek had a lack of attention injury similar to mine just before we arrived. We had a beer and Derek photographed me outside the Albergue when I stayed in 2007, and Lindsay and I stayed in 2012. We entered Leon which is a fantastic city with lots of fountains or statues on its roundabouts. 

We visited the Cathedral before finding our hotel. 

At the hotel Derek posed with the statue, of the weary pilgrim with his saddles off, outside of the hotel. It is the 5-star Parador de Lyon, originally the Convento San Marcos pilgrim shelter and church. Not such a bad place to stay for two nights! Fabulous modern rooms inside. 



We arranged to meet up with Christian who had also arrived. Being Spanish he really helps in a region of Spain where few speak English. He introduced us to Zaira, a nice lady fron Naples who he had met at the Albergue and who was starting the Camino in Lyon. Her dog had died a couple of weeks before and she was carrying its lead with her on the Camino. We all had a great night out of drinking and tapas before retiring to bed. Tomorrow we are tourists in this wonderful, ancient, city.