A flat smelly landscape with all the fresh manure out in the fields. A cold biting headwind from the northwest for the first 17KM, but on the bright side, no rain, nice clear skies and sunshine.
Some of this was on the old paved Roman road known as the Via Aquitana that connected Rome to Astorga, which we will walk through after Leon.
We got off to a disorganized and late start as in discussing various aches and pains, no plan had been made the night before because we were not sure how we should plan to (be able to) walk. At 9:30 am we asked the convent hospitalaros to make us a reservation at the Albergue Jacques de Molay (20 € for a double room no bath). The reservation was good if we arrived by 4pm. We knew that accepting that deadline time was going to be tough for us to get there. I (leslie) was carrying about 5 lbs of David's stuff (injured left calf) which after 17KM was exhausting so I had to give it back to him to carry. At that point he was feeling perkier than I was!
Passed a lady hiking with a red floral skirt and asked about it. She was from Sydney Australia and first joked that she thought she was in Hawaii. Then she said her husband had passed away in July and she was walking The Camino in his favorite dress. David complimented her late husband on his good taste in dresses and life partners.
We made it to our hostel at 4:30 and they had saved our private room - great for us!
This Albergue will serve us dinner (8 €s each) and breakfast as well (3 €s each) but they throw us out at 8 am. We did a laundry in the shower which means we wear our hiking clothes into the shower and they get washed along with us. Very basic really when you are so tired you have a hard time moving.
In the bigger picture, today we got through another test. We also passed the halfway mark to Santiago.
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