Sunday, June 12, Day 21 on the Camino

Today we trekked about twenty miles to the little village of Villanate. It was one of those villages that is between major stops, but fortunately it had a great little hostel.

I started my day by leaving at about 7:30 and had to find the Camino as our hotel was several blocks from the area near the cathedral where the Camino snakes through the narrow cobble streets.

The whole area that had been overrun by people last night almost felt erie because it was vacant. It was actually covered in litter, something I had yet to see in Spain, but there were numerous street sweepers in their florescent work suites with their wheeled trash cans and brooms busy at work cleaning up.

The sun was just coming up and the orange light reflecting off of the cathedral’s steeples looked almost unreal and magical.

I found my first yellow arrow pointing the way on the Camino and I wondered how someone would even be able to find it with the thousands of people in the plaza yesterday. The Camino is sometimes marked by the symbolic gold sea shell on the blue background tile that is sometimes on the side of a building, concrete post or sidewalk. It could also be marked by brass tiles in the sidewalk, stamped into the concrete sidewalk, and mostly by the painted yellow arrow which could be anywhere. It could be on a curb, street, sidewalk, rock, building, metal post, concrete post, tree, anywhere! You just have to be vigilant and constantly be looking for it.

Talking to a fellow pilgrim has led to several wrong turns. Hearing a whistle, a holler, or wave from another pilgrim or local resident is part of staying in the right direction on the Camino. I have done the same for other pilgrims myself.

The day started with lots of other pilgrims because Leon is one of those major stopping points for the day in the guide books. Leon is also a popular point to start the Camino as more and more pilgrims will start the closer it is to Santiago.

The Camino started with a steep climb near the outskirts of the city and then it went through one of my least favorite parts of the Camino, and industrial area for over a few miles.

I stopped to have something to eat and sat with a nice young German. You never know what langue you’ll find when you say hello but English is the major one on the Camino. It seems most all Germans and Dutch speak English, and many people from other countries do to. Maybe more so than back in California?

Monica was actually still sleeping when I left, and I walk at a fairly good pace and she left about a half hour later and caught up to me as I was eating breakfast. Everyone goes at their own pace and many times I even pass those that have left at 5:30 AM. I don’t mind leaving later as I generally like to go further than most and hopefully still get lodging.

The Camino splits into two different ways, one noted as a bit longer and away from the road but with few villages or places to get food and water. We decide to take this way which was actually on an old paved road much of the way. The terrain was mostly flat and the typical farmland as far as you could see but I still find this scenery beautiful as it is so open and green. Because there weren’t many landmarks or villages, we weren’t sure exactly where we were.

We entered a small village not knowing which one it was or how far we had gone. I wanted to go further mistakenly thinking we’d only gone 12-13 miles, but Monica thought it was much further so we fortunately found this great little albergue, and realized it was Villanate. By then we’d gone twenty miles.

Villanate is not a major stopping place, and we had gotten there early enough, that there was one room with two beds left, so I grabbed it. Wow, did I feel a little snobbish as it was a nice, if not better, than any place we have stayed. Beautiful room, private bath with two shower heads, one large rain shower head, bath gels, large towels, small couch, and an about 42″ flat screen to watch America tv shows dubbed in Spanish.

Yes, and those poor peons had to have the lights out at ten and lay in silence while we soaked up the luxury. It was nice not to hear the usual early morning buzz as everyone was getting ready for the day. The room was only thirty-five euros, and two bunks in the dorm room would have been twenty euros anyway.

We had diner there and met three American women traveling with their daughters that had just graduated from college. As I have said before, that is actually a nice thing about staying in hostels, meeting and talking with other pilgrims.

For me having trekked in so many remote locations staying in the hostels has been a big adjustment for me, but all part of the Camino experience.

Tomorrow I hope to go through the larger town of Astorga, anther major stopping place. There are several smaller villages several miles further that will hopefully fewer pilgrims and have nicer lodging.

Best wishes,

Ted

Leaving Leon