I have walked some long days and have been remiss in not writing.
Day 7 was a long walk from Poblacion de Campos to Calzadilla de la Cueza. Normally, I would stop in Carrion de Los Condes but Poblacion is only about 16 km from there so I walked the long 17km streatch from Carrion to Calzadilla. It was not too bad and I was happy to get a bed, I had made a reservation, which is lucky as every bed in town was full. I had the straingest experience of my Camino career here. The hospitalero decided to do a pilgrim a favor and move pilgrim beds around after they had been assigned. This created a great deal of frustration when it first happened and then a couple arrived back at the albergue from dinner only to find that their stuff had been removed from one of the beds and put on a bench. The lady who was displaced was distraught, rightfully so. The hospitalero tried to justify his actions which were completely and totally inappropriate. There was plenty of yelling and screaming, ultimately, the lady ended up crying. She was either American or Canadian. Eventually, she was reassigned a bed along with her husband and we were able to try and get some sleep. I was pretty fired up and had a hard time falling asleep. Such is the Camino. It never should have happened. Funny enough taking with my friends from Germany and Switzerland they were aghast by the lady crying and thought it was funny that she would over react as they thought she did. I did not see it that way but I guess that is the American perspective.
Day 8 started out as a short day. I was only going to walk 22 km or about 13 miles and then relax a bit. Well, we arrived in Sahagun early around 11 and I could not see myself sitting around all day so I had lunch with my friends and then we walked on to Bercianos another 12 km down the trail. It was a nice walk and fun just to talk. One of my German friends, Christian came up to me on the walk and asked about politics in America. It turns out that he is an astrophysicist turned Business Administration professor at the university in Berlin. Our views were on opposite sides of the spectrum but it was a fun discussion nonetheless. I love learning what Europeans think. Since the majority of Europe is basically socialist they are not big fans of the Republican Party. Ok, no problem it is still a fun and interesting discussion. The albergue in Bercianos was awesome. We had a room with 5 single beds and its own onsuite bathroom. it was super nice to be able to sleep with no one above me and to be able to put my feet off the end of the bed as I prefer to sleep. I can’t say the food was great but they had food so that was nice.
Day 9 We walked from Bercianos to Mansanilla de las Mulas. About 34 km. A very nice walk although there was a 12 km stretch with not services. That being said I had fun and met some interesting people. The most interesting was a couple Gary and Susan from Knoxville Tn. Gary is a pilot who flies 777’s for Atlas air a freight company. He has been there for more than 25 years so is the number 1 pilot for seniority. That means that he gets to pick any schedule that he wants and no one can take it from him, which is a great position to be in. That actually was not the most interesting thing about them though. When I said I was from Sacramento they started to smile and said they were hoping to meet someone from Sacramento as in a little village a few days into the Camino they had met a man sitting in the square all by himself. When they approached him he started talking to them Turns out he was the infamous Leonard Padilla from Sacramento. The asked if I knew him, I told them I knew of him but did not know him personally, but that I did know his nephew Topo Padilla. We had a fun time chatting for a few minutes until they took a break and off I went.
When I finally arrived and Mansanilla de las Mulas I found that the Municipal albergue was being repaired and they had a temporary building with only 26 beds. I was in line for a bed and would have gotten one but then I just thought that since I am just a short time pilgrim I did not want to take a bed from someone waking all the way to Santiago. My friend Paul was the hospitalero so I told him that I would leave my bed for someone else and he directed me to the bus station. I walked a few blocks to the bus station, walked in and used the restroom, by the time I was done the bus was there. 1.95 euros was the cost to travel to Leon. I booked a hotel on the way and when I arrived I walked the 5 minutes to my hotel. I choose well as the hotel was very nice. The bed was comfy and the shower was hot and private. Nice. Once I was showered up I went out and had a nice lunch and them stopped by the Carbajal Benedictine albergue and got my stamps for the day.
Today, Day 10 I got up this morning and went for a nice walk. funny, but yes I needed a little walk. I stopped but a cafe and had a Cafe con Leche and enjoyed just sitting there and smelling the fresh croissants which were cooking away. Then I went back to my hotel took another shower, a luxury indeed, and then went up to have a delicious breakfast. I would stay in that hotel again in a heartbeat. Hotel Palacete Colonial. Now I am on a train headed back to Madrid. Tomorrow at 11 am I will head home Atlanta first then Sacramento. All in all it has been an amazing time. I loved volunteering and plan to join Jacqui again next year in Nàjera for a repeat performance.