Another Beautiful Day | Day 16

We walked out of the hotel into the darkness in Leon this morning and made our way out of the city. The Camino de Santiago is not well marked in cities, so we really needed to be careful. There were several spots when we got onto the wrong street and had to use the app Buen Camino to get back on track again.

As we worked our way out of the city, we started to climb considerably. We then walk out in the open, and transitioned to gravel roads and into an area that looked very much like the Savannah of Africa.

I took a picture of a little dirt house, one of many that looked like something out of the hobbit. I also walked by one of the Camino markers with some hiking boots filled with rocks, which I thought was pretty funny.

At times today, it was a very long flat asphalt road out in the middle of farmland that just kept going and going and going. Today was 14 miles and tomorrow is 20 miles. I plan on getting a lot of rest and getting up very early tomorrow to start the hike before it get too warm.

We’re staying in an absolutely adorable Albergue with manicured front lawn and trees. There are adorable little kittens that the owner keeps running off because they belong to the neighbor.

We’re staying in a room with two beds but no bathroom. This is a hostel so there are a lot of bunkbeds. Thank God the weather is cool and not so hot and humid.

The dining room is where all the pilgrims will come together tonight at 7 PM for good food, wine and a fire to tell stories of their day and beyond.

I walked down to the supermarket and ended up getting lost on the way back. A nice Spanish woman named Claudia on a bicycle helped me to find my way again.

You will see one picture of the top of a church. That’s actually a storks nest situated right up on top. I would really like to see a stork, but they tell me they migrate south this time of year.