Maybe a bike........

Walking into Leon was tough. The damn Roman road with cobble stones beat our feet up. Once in Leon we went to El Cortez Ingles and looked around and to a bike shop near our hotel. I found one I could like....








I bet we can everything we need in the 'boot'. And compared to new feet this is cheap.

Location:Villarejo de Órbigo,Spain

Found a great Albergue after a 17.1 Km walk

Had a nice walk from Vilar de Mazarife to Villarejo de Órbigo today. Sunny and bright and FLAT! My kind of walking. Dewey has been searching out fried eggs and bacon for a couple of weeks now and we found them today. We also found a great (and the only Albergue) in the same spot. It's very nice, clean, and full of character. Now this is living!

Location:Villarejo de Órbigo,Spain

Abundant wildlife

Lots of wildlife on the Camino. Most come out in cool weather or after a rain. They are a little tough to photograph but we managed with our fast shutter. They have to be fast because the locals are out looking to add them to a midday meal. Yum Yum!




















And this is a slow walker trying not to step in the mud..........

Location:Calle del Carmen,Chozas de Abajo,Spain

As if we couldn't be humbled any more...

Oh did we tell you what humbled us yet again the other day? Besides the 75 year old gentleman who walked 10 times in sandals, the 78 year old woman who walked it at least 15 times, the one legged man who happily runs by us... We were in Calzadilla de los Hermanillos and coming out of a restaurant we meet a young woman Joanna from Canada. She and her husband are walking the Camino....from Roncesvalles! ...over 250+ miles!...with their TWO children. The kids are... TWO years old and 7 MONTHS old. They had just stopped for an early dinner and were loading the babies up in a double wide all terrain stroller. It had a rain cover (did we tell you it rained a lot the last couple of weeks?), there were washed cloth diapers hanging off the top to dry as they went along, it was equipped with extra handles as both parents had to push this buggy up hills together, hand breaks, a large pack on top of the buggy (I'm assuming for all the cloth diapers!), and each of the parents had a 70 pack strapped to their backs. Quite the load! Oh yea... And they didn't stay in Albuergues... They camped out in a tent! (did we tell you it rained a lot the last coupe of weeks?). Amazing!! Just when you think you've seen the toughest of people, someone new comes along and shows you that more can be done.... Hummmmmm. Oh and the babies were tranquilo and happy and cute as can be. Of course they were dotted on by every pilgrim and woman within the village. This was the one day we didn't have our camera with us - bummer. That's ok though, there is high probability we may run into them again. They had a 5 hour head start... So how fast could they be? Well we haven't seen them yet... Ol' injun Dewey has been watching out for their buggy tracks but he lost the trail. (that's another story)
Well on the road early tomorrow. Buen Camino!

Location:Calle del General Mola,Leon,Spain

Just the two of us....

A few photos of us... Happy as clams!

Location:Calle del General Mola,Leon,Spain

TV and his eggs...

These are the nice locals we met yesterday.

We made it to León

After a tough TOUGH day of walking nonSTOP for 5 hours... We finally made it to Mansilla de las Mulas (horn of the saddle of the mule) We feel like old mules. We walked a two thousand year old roman road for 19 Km... In the footsteps of Emperor Augustus. Note: Jep, now we know why you ride a bike on the Camino! It was beautiful, serene, and damn long.. AND we started out with out coffee which was really a challenge. Once in Mansilla we had coffee, found the bus schedule, and on the way to the bus station we met some very nice locals. The people all around Spain are just wonderful. A man, 'TV', his wife Marcella, and friend Jose Luis, stopped us on the corner and began chatting with us. Really nice people. We had 20 minutes to spare before the bus came. 'TV' took us around the corner to a building where he had his "garage" and in there he had a small refridge like box... Opened it up and he had EGGS! Some on the verge of hatching, partially hatched. A variety of sizes.. Oca, pavo... Goose, chickens, smaller Chechens... He was going to show us his little chicks but the bus came so we had to run. It was a great encounter. We caught the bus to León and found a Posada to stay in. The other great news is that we found an El Corte Ingles where we bought a camera card adapter for the iPad! So we can now send more pictures. We also bought tougher insoles for our shoes..Did I mention our feet were killing us? More to come.... Buen Camino!!

Extreme walking... yesterday!!

Walked 34.8 Km yesterday!!!  That´s around 21+ miles!   Our feet paid the price...more pictures to come. Not of our feet but beatiful little villages... Later, hope all is well.
Buen Camino!!  p.s. does anybody read this?

Still moving

Good day yesterday and today.  We walked 33 k yesterday. Lets see, 33 times .62 carry the one ....20 plus some miles. We were both beat at the end and wanted to complaine  but a bunch of older walkers were already in the albergue!  Today 5-7-2012, Monday we had another long day but not like yesterday.  And today we are at the half way point.  MJ calculated we have walked 226 miles. Feels like 227.  As we ended the day the Albergue we wanted to stay at was full so we had to walk backa bit to find a bed.  This Albergue is great and we have a modest room for two.  We are in Terradillos de Templarios for those of you with google earth.  Everyday we get to meet people from all over the world and between English and a bit of Spanish and hand waving we can communicate with everyone.  One guy from France my age! Started at his house in the middle of France and walked to >Barrize (sp), down the coast of Spain, over the coast mountains to pampolana and met us in Terradillos. Does it every year! Drinks two glasses of wine for with dinner and two at breakfast and doesn´t smoke.  Apparently the secerto of the camino.  I´m starting at dinner tonight.  By the way, these Spanish key board are not the same. And the spell checker correct in Spanish.  Hell, I can´t spell as is and I can´t spell in Spanish any better so don´t mind the spelling. I´ll let MJ get on and add more detail.  Pictures to follow if we can get a wifi (wee fee in Spain) connection for the ipad.