Another great walk - in the cool!

We are now at Mansilla de las Mulas, a small town ( but big enough to get lost in!) and I am trying to have a fresh start in my thinking, as this is where I had my ghastly encounter with bedbugs 5 years ago, and I am inclined to shudder when I think of this place. Well so far all has been totally different...it is a beautiful day, sunny but cool (finally), we are staying at a different hotel - very welcoming and clean, wifi seem excellent, and all seems perfect. Last time it rained, the woman at reception of the little casa rural was very grouchy and said there was no wifi (wouldn’t give us the code anyway), and our memory is very negative.

So we left this morning at 7.55 in the COLD. It was 7° and I had a t-shirt under my shirt, but soon put on my jacket, which I kept on till we arrived at 12.30 - 19.5 kms later! So hard to remember that 2 days ago it was unbearably hot in the afternoon at Sagahún! Anyway, autumn seems to have started, and hopefully will stay, as we had a lovely walk, again on a path next to a country road, very peaceful and still in the wide open spaces...photos just can’t capture the scope of the scene. More corn now, and we saw our first cows (or animals of any sort actually).

When we left it was again just light, and there in front of us was a huge full setting moon....quite spectacular, and a few minutes later it slipped out of sight, and the rising sun appeared behind us. Magical. But today people preferred to walk in the sun rather than the shade. When we arrived here we again got lost trying to find the hotel, partly because there was so much activity and bustle...it is obviously market day, and instead of arriving to a sleeping town having its siesta, there were people and stalls everywhere, not just in the square, along the streets, women with trolleys, fruit, veg, cheeses, and all the other clothes and bits and bobs of markets. One kind man tried to help us find our way, but sent us in quite the wrong direction because he didn’t know the hotel, but kept following us worrying...very kind..when we did find it having asked the checkout girl at a supermarket we found the hotel closed, (but we could see our bags inside!) so we happily went and had a beer and some tapas, and the kind man saw us there and was relieved that all was well!

Hotel seems very good - modern and clean, and they let us use the washing machine and our stuff is drying on the line now. Clean and ready for León...we entered the actual province of León just before Sahagún. It will be a reasonable walk there tomorrow, but with the usual stresses of entering a city, but we remember it as fairly straightforward. We have booked a restaurant for tomorrow night to celebrate Amr’s birthday, the same Michelin Star place we went for his 60th!! It will be great, but we have the same problem - we have to wait up till 9.30 pm which is the earliest time....this is definitely our bed time these days, but we will stay up and have a ball. It is a small place, and last time it was full by 10 pm...Now off to explore the town with new eyes...Read more