León to Villar de Mazarife

The city of León was partying all night near our hotel in center of town. There were people singing and shouting in the street till about 7:30am.

We got up at 7 and were out the door about 8. There was a great cafe operating not far away so we had very good juice (fresh squeezed as always), fresh croissant and coffee there before rejoining the Camino trail. It was a fairly pleasant walk out of León toward the west, passing the magnificent Parador hotel on the way. It’s a converted monastery and features in the film “The Way”.

There followed some slightly grimy dormitory suburbs along the train line. Not far out of town we met our friend Chris from Utah. Then in Virgen del Camino, really an outer suburb of Leon, we had a 2nd coffee and bought a big ham sandwich, in case pickings were slim on the trail ahead on a Sunday. We also ran into our Danish friends there, Jens and Kristin.

Just after Virgen del Camino the Way forks and we had booked a room along the more scenic side so we left our friends at that point. Pretty soon we were in open scrubby country with a few trees. It could have been outback Australia or Brazil. Red earth, blue sky.

Conditions were cool (64F/17C) sunny and dry, often with a breeze, but the sun had induced quite a thirst in us when we entered the tiny village of Oncina de Valdeoncina. There was no bar to be found but the owner of a new albergue, Domus Oncinae, invited us in for a cold drink. The place looks very nice there and we enjoyed a rest stop and a Kas Naranja (orange fizzy drink). The next 5k or so were the best of the day. Wide open countryside, some farmed, most not, on a wide soft dirt track, with a nice breeze. That brought us to the village of Chozas de Abajo. Not expecting much we found a capacious bar with a large shaded veranda where we ate our ham sandwich, washed down by more iced Kas Naranja, and a delicious tomato tapas thing accompanying the soft drinks.

After lunch and a foot airing it was a 4km trudge along a paved road to our destination of Villar de Mazarife.

21.5km was our tally for the day, in excellent walking conditions.

We checked into Albergue San Antonio de Padua: $85 for twin room, dinner and breakfast for 2, all very new.Read more