Camino de Madrid/Camino Francis, Day 14, Thursday, May 24, 2028

Melgar de Arriba to Bercianos del Real Camino (13 miles / 20.93 kms)

Today was going to be an interesting day as it was the day that I would met up and start walking on the Camino Francis.

I had a good nights sleep and I wasn’t going to be in a rush in the morning to get up since it was only about nine miles to Sahagún, where the Camino de Madrid meets the Camino Francis. I didn’t stay up late, which surprised me since I went to the bar for dinner with the two Spanish peregrino bicycle riders, Alfredo and Joaquin, that were also staying at the alberque. It is the only eating place in the village and you would have to know where it is because it’s located on one of the back streets. But then, that’s typical of Spain.

It rained last night and the forecast was for rain today, but it turned out to be a sunny and cool day. Great for walking.

I left at nine and the last one to leave. At this point I had no option but to started on the country road through town towards Sahagún as Melgar de Arriba is off the Camino. The road was typical of the other backcountry roads that have very little traffic. The landscape was flat farmland with few, if any, hills.

Just south, and outside Sahagún, the Camino Madrid crossed an intersection leading into town, and it then turns east into the middle of Sahagún. The Camino Francis runs to the west and this would add more distance on the Camino Francis just to get back to a point directly north of here. The other option was to follow another road that was posted as an alternate way to the Camino, bypassing Sahagún and going west to connect with the Camino Francis. That’s the route I decided to take.

After about a mile I could clearly see in the distance that I was approaching the Camino Francis. It was flat area and I could see pilgrims walking across the road in front of me. I could also see more pilgrims approaching the road and several that had crossed the road. I knew it was coming, but it was still a strange feeling after only seeing and talking to four other walking pilgrims and three pilgrim bicyclists on the entire distance on the Camino Madrid, from Madrid. For me it was going to be like driving a quiet country road and then suddenly having to merge on a major freeway in downtown Los Angeles. A little exaggerated, but you get the point.

I didn’t have a Camino Francis guide book or program and felt I would just walk as long as I had energy and stop when I found a place. I had walked the Francis almost two years before and really can’t remember places to stop. Once I crossed the Francis I just merged from the slow lane onto the Francis at the speed limit. Merging really wasn’t a bad way of describing it because there were people in front and behind me.

It was interesting to see the different people at various paces. It’s not a race, and it shouldn’t be, but I passed very slow moving people, and some where sitting on benches resting, and two were sleeping on a bench. I passed three women that were going fairly slow, and when I passed them one of them picked up her pace and kept up with me, and of all things, she tried to pass me! If you’ve ever had that experience of following a slow moving car and when you go to pass it, it speeds up, that’s what it was like. I thought it was funny. I just have a steady pace and I am not fast, slow and steady like the turtle. There were of course people that passed me, and that’s just how it is, everyone walks at their own pace.

The Camino for the next five to six miles was on a well maintained and defined dirt path which was directly next to a frontage road. I walked on both, back and forth, for most of the way. Just outside of Bercianos del Real Camino I saw a large nice looking new building that turned out to be a bar and albergue. I was thirsty and stopped hoping to get my fresh squeezed orange juice and found it was an alberque with private rooms. I was told it was so new that it wasn’t in any of the guide books.

It was about 1:30 when I stopped and by the time I had my drinks and chatted with a woman pilgrim from Germany and hour had passed. I looked at the rooms, either four beds to a room with a shared bath, or a private room with a bath. Realizing I wasn’t motivated enough to go back and start walking, and hoping to find a place as nice as this, I got a private room for €28. It was fairly typical price for the Camino and a private room is what I wanted tonight.

I had a very nice pilgrim dinner for €10, which as always on the Camino, came with a bottled water or a large bottle of wine. I had dinner with two women, Andrea from Hungry, a personal trainer, and Francesca from Germany, a government worker. Later another American woman, Brandy, from Texas joined us. She was forty-two and just retired from the Air Force as a major. Francesca told me since she started the Camino in Saint Jean Pied de Port that she had met people from 35 countries. Not surprising because that’s the Camino.

I have no idea where I’ll end up tomorrow and I will just play it by ear. I didn’t think that I would have to plan ahead for places to sleep like on the Camino de Madrid, because there are so many places to eat and stay but that has seemed to change with the popularity of the Francis.

As always, please excuse the typos, grammar, and spelling, etc., because I am writing this on my phone and don’t always review it.

Best wishes to all,

Ted