Monday Sep. 16

Breakfast was filling this morning, fruit, oj, toast, croissants, cafe con leche, yogurt, cheese, meats, as much as you want for 8.9 euros.  We had 17.5 km to walk with no services so we ate heartily.  By the time we left the San Zolo Monestary it was 9am, a bit late for pilgrims.  The road weas an old roman one, very long and straight.  We were all listening to tunes or stories from the vinyl cafe, so spontaneous laughter was erupting every so often.  There wasn´t much shade but I think we all felt the day was not so hard.  Nevertheless we were happy to arrive in Calzadilla de la Cueza for grande beers.  The population of this town is 60 persons! The internet is not working anywhere in town, so no blog again tonight....hopefully tomorrow.  We had pizza and another small beer and coke then off to our rooms for rest, showers and .... There is nothing to do here and going for a walk seems crazy when we have walked all day.  There is no supermercade, wlhen we came into town we saw a truck with a bunch of locals around it buying fruit and vegetables and there had probably been a bread man earlier.
We amusted ourselves by washing our clothes in the bathroom sink till it was time to go for dinner at 7:30 Tonight we were offered soup, salad and pork or turkey, everything comes with chips, which are usually lukewarm! We had 2 bottles of red and called it a night with a plan to hit the camino trail at 6Ñ30 and stop for coffee after l6 km.

Sept. 17 Tuesday

Early to rise today, we were walking under a starry sky, the milky way and big dipper.  It was the coldest morning so far.  We planned to stop for coffee after l6km but missed the only coffee place in town, so rather than go back we de3cided to go another 3km to the next place.  At 9:15 we were in a very nice cosy place , we had two cafe con leches each and chocolate croissants, did some foot repair and sock change and we were off again.
The terrain was mostly flat with few trees.  There were several little areas with a house or two where everything looked either abandoned or closed up tight.  At one there was a man sitting on a stool, at first I thought he was another pilgrim but then I saw he was dunking pidgeons in a boiling tub of water to remove the feathers.  I asked if I could take a photo via pantomine and I think he said yes in rapido spanish!
As the temperture rose we were changing out of jackets into coller attire.  The sun seems to be mostly on our left so if we appear brown on one side when you see us next .... that is why!.  There were underground wine storage places built into the side of the hill, they looked like miniature houses.
We arrived in Sahgun at 1:30 all of us hungry and looking for a room and beer.  We found a quaint hotel which was very clean, two rooms for 65 euros.
BVeers were next with olives and chips and cheese.  One thing we have noticed is the smokers and also the cigarette machines, which of course are a thing of the past at least in western Canada.
We went back to our hotel for a short rest before venturing out for internet and our last mean of the day. We had a map,m but it was till confusing, finally found it, I madly typed us up to date and we went out to the playa major and the restaurant recommended by our hostel  We sat inside at a lovely round table, eating smoked salmon salad with giant prawns and paella and a wonderful crisp bottle of white wine.
The wine, which we just order by saying tinto or blanco is always delicious. It was eleven before we went to bed for the night.

Sept., 18 Wednesday

We were off again in the darm...no coffe shopstill we reached Bercianos around 10am.  There was nothing but a cafe on the edge of town but there were clean bathrooms, good food, coffee and wifi so we were able to catch up on news from home.  I read the girls a lovely information email from grandson no. 1 Cameron, all about his first week back at Queens.v  The path today was long and straight and fairly flat so we were making good time.  Lots of pilgrims are limping along and bandages are in view.  The Spanish have planted some trees along the path to shade pilgrims and it is greatly appreciated.  We haven´t been in as many churches this trip, mainly because we find them closed.
I forgot to mention, a couple of days ago we walked with 4 interesting pilgrims from New Mexico, they are all volunteer fire fighters from 2 different stations, 2 women and 2 men, not couples just friends and coworkers.  We talked about where we come fron about our camino experiences, wish each other well and walk on.  We chanced upon them later in the day and I happewned to have my socks off airing my toes.  One of the women asked if she could take a photo of my feet as I had a few bandages on! We laughed and said she should have seen us last trip, these ones are mostly preventative.
We reached El BUrgo Ranero at 12.15 , early for us but we were happy to stop.  We are staying at an Alb erque in 2 rooms each with bathrooms, large garden and laundry lines, washed our clothes, showered and set out for lunch  Sandy and I had trout which wasd delish, our waiter, a fellow from Barcelona had just caught them yesterday. Joanie and Jan had nice chicken.  We also had melopn and ham, the melon here is excellent and much larger variety than we get at home. Joanie had sauted artichokes and a different ham sort of like bacon.  Very nice pilgrim food...better than usual. Beer and wine were also included of course.  Next we hit the supermercado for yogurt, water, chips, oj and wine.
Wine and chips were our evening dinner as lunch had been late and large.  We sat outside our alberque on a stone bench drinking wine from the plastic glasses we made by acutting of the top half of a small water bottle.!!  Inventive!
We watched whatever passed us by, anold lady out for her walk, around the block twice, a man herding his flock of sheep in from the field and probably the most beautiful sunset we have ever witnessed.  Oh and also an old man pushing a wheelbarrow full of giant sunflower heads and loads of beautiful yellow and ghreen gourds.  He broke off a section of sunflower for us and gave us 2 gourds.,We were tired and call