Our day started with a trip to the albergue to deposit my day pack with my off-loaded backpack items for delivery to our next albergue in Villar de Mazarife. This was followed with Fred making a return trip to the albergue to pick up my bastones (trekking poles) as I had left them behind. Always so fun to repeat our steps, like we don't take enough anyway.
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| Pharmacy in Leon |
From there we made what has now become a daily stop at the pharmacy. The pharmacy we chose had a most beautiful interior with antique carved wood shelves containing old apothecary jars and a stamped tin ceiling. I was trying to pick up some radio salil, a cream someone recommended for tendonitis, assuming that is what is troubling my ankle. They were out so had to wait for a courier to delivery it. While waiting I asked, in Spanish if you can believe that, if there was something better than ibuprofen for my ankle. He kindly provided me with another type of anti-inflammatory that he said was better and could be taken at the same time as the cream. I was set!
We left at a record late time, even for us - 10:15. The walk out of Leon was almost as long and tiring as the walk into Burgos with most all of it on concrete sidewalks and through an industrial district. Just before we were to depart from the concrete jungle, we stopped at another kind of jungle - an African themed tavern where we had a great tortilla patata before we headed out in hopes of finding a dirt trail so soften the blow to our joints.
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| African Tavern |
Just up the hill, there were several bodegas carved into it's walls. Unfortunately, we had to walk another 4 kilometres before we arrived at La Virgen del Camino where we finally found the dirt paths we so longed for. And that was only after much deliberation on which way to go as there was an option of two paths and the markings for them were very poor and confusing. We were relieved to find the beloved yellow arrows further down the road to let us know were were indeed on the right path.
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| Lovely in the Middle |
It was not to last. A mere 5.5 kilometres later, we were back on pavement until we arrived at our albergue in Villar de Mazarif. It was now shortly after six and we had just enough time to get checked in and settled before it was time for dinner. Although we had planned to be in a room with all our fellow pilgrims, we somehow misunderstood the hospitalero and thought the only beds left were in an individual room so we ended up in a private room with our own shower. Probably an okay thing because I started coughing once again as soon as my head hit the pillow.This is where the "lovely in the middle" came to fruition. I can't describe this section of the path in any other way. It was not beautiful. It was not breathtaking. It was simply lovely. There were sections of the countryside that were tamed with fields but other sections that were wild with flowers. Tamed and wild, side by side. We were traveling slow because of my ankle issues and we were not sorry for it. A delightful lunch in the shade of a tree surrounded by flowers made this part of our day's journey perfect.
Our dinner was with all of our pilgrim friends who had also made it this far. We will be sad when we know we will no longer see these special people.
Lesson for the Day: Sometimes the loveliest of times are sandwiched between difficult ones. Perhaps it helps us appreciate them more.
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