Day 10 through 13 of the Camino of Santiago

Entering Leon

This Wednesday will mark two weeks of walking for these two peregrinas. 

Jess and I have made it to Leon, the next major city after Burgos. We have walked 6 days over the plains of Spain and now we feel like professional pilgrims. Most of our blisters have ghealed and our backpacks no longer feel like leaden weights.

Looking out on the meseta

Iglesia de la Trinidad converted to an albergue

We have had a few notable experiences in the last week. We stayed at a convent in Carrion de los Condes where we were greeted and escorted around the place by very enthusiastic nuns. Two days later in Sahagùn, we stayed in a church that was converted to an albergue .

Jess occupying herself with the ukulele at the albergue on a rainy day

So far on the camino, we have experienced two acts of kindness. On our way to Carrion, Jess and I were suffering serious hunger pangs when an old man stopped us on the street to tell us not to take the modern pilgrims' path along the road, but to take the ancient, shaded one along the river. The old man was kind enough to give us a piece of candy, some crackers, and two handfuls of almonds in their shells. Both Jess and I temporarily thought of the age old lesson of not accepting candy from strangers, but then we thought, who would want to poison 2 lovely girls on the camino. So we ate the candy, crackers, and saved the almonds for lunch because we had to use a rock to crack the shells. 

A few almonds from the old Spaniard

The second act of kindness happened yesterday. We lost our opinel pocket knife at the albergue in Sahagùn. The pocket knife is the only utensil we carry, and without it, the usually peaceful lunch of cheese and chorizo sandwiches would be reduced to passing back and forth the cheese, chorizo, and bread to tear off hunks with our teeth. Yesterday we had a long, cold, windy 32km walk. I think this description will explain the extent of the cold: Even though Jess and I were already dressed in ALL our clothing, we put wool socks on our hands, and even then we were still freezing. There are no pictures of sockhands, but it´s the only way to explain that we were freezing even after walking 10km at a brisk pace. 

 After 14km we stopped at the only cafe along the way to warm up and drink cafe con leche. While I was paying for our coffee I asked the owner if he knew where we could buy a pocket knife. He responded that the closest place was Leon, 50km away. I must have looked concerned because he gave me my change and walked over to a drawer, dug around and pulled out a pocket knife. He simply handed it to me and said that we needed it more than him. 

Many storks in northen Spain

The storks only nest on church rooftops

The main door of the cathedral in Leon