Mansilla to Leon

We stayed at Casa Miguel Y Sally last night, which was absolutely lovely, although not quite the luxurious home that was portrayed on the internet. Sally made a traditional homemade Spanish dish comprised of slow cooked chick peas, cabbage, pork, and chorizo sausage. It was consumed with a bottle of red wine and the ubiquitous white French loaf.

Today, we had a very short walk of about 20km into the city of Leon. The Way followed mostly parallel to the motorway, and to be fair, it was not as picturesque as the early days. But that is life on the Camino. It was also extremely cold this morning about minus one , and didn't warm up until 10ish..hence the early morn8ng cafe stop for coffee and ho5 choc dor Emily and Lucy.

We have gotten to know many people now and we are enjoying bumping into them in bars (coffee bars), along the way and in the street - this has made up for the lack of views today.

Life on the Camino is exceptionally busy. I had thoughts of relaxing afternoons after a morning's walk, journaling, reading, sightseeing, and generally being quiet and reflecting on life. But this is absolutely not the case. Our days start early with the alarm at 5-6am depending on how long our walking day is. We pack and either eat breakfast before we leave or plan to eat it at the first town. Frequently everything's closed in the first town and we walk on. Because of breaks and the ever changing terrain and slope of the land we travel at around 4kms per hour and this is considered reasonably fast. When we arrive at our albergue we check in, find our beds, wash our clothes, check the weather for the next day, plan our meals, decide on dinner options, check our forward reservation, check the washing and book more accommodation. It's like having a job!

Booking accommodation takes a long time and is confusing - we use about 4 different Camino apps - for different reasons. Brian and I decided we would dedicate time today and make sure everything is booked up to our trip to Porto in Portugal. Result, we achieved it - that has removed a lot of stress. Brian has done the lion's share of the bookings - we are very grateful.

We have two nights in Leon so a rest day tomorrow/sight seeing. We also farewell Marco tonight...he is off back to Italy.Læs mere