Day 21 - El Burgo Ranero to Mansilla de las Mulas

Day 21. 

Only two weeks to go until we walk into Santiago de Compostela.

Another short day of walking was programmed for today and therefore we got up late and did not set off until 8am.

The hotel we stayed in, in El Burgo Ranero, the Piedras Blancas, was difficult to rate. The room was small and hot. The meal was lousy. The owner was grumpy. The waitresses inhospitable. The breakfast better than average. 

They did, however, allow us to use their washing machine which, excuse the pun, washed away all their other sins and we actually enjoyed our stay.

Today's walk again ran through grain fields and we got to spend time (while walking) watching the harvester, which bought back memories of my childhood.

There were very few towns along the route today, actually only one, and we had to walk 12.5km to get there.


The walk was worth it though and the coffee, our reward, was great. The place we stopped at was called Piedras Blancas 2 (same as the previous night) and, the waitress was the same as for the previous evenings dinner. And she was still hospitable. Déjà vu. 

While enjoying our coffee, we chatted with a Hungarian mother and daughter, now living in Germany, who were bonding on the Camino before the daughter heads off to University later in the year. They got caught last night and had to sleep in the open on the steps of the Church we passed yesterday, the Church of the Virgen de Perales.

The rest of the walk into Mansilla de las Mulas was uneventful and we arrived at the doorsteps of our hotel before noon.

We were hungry and decided to have a lunch before showering.

Lunch was at a restaurant down the street from our hotel called Yokers. We had a very good lunch of Calamari and Paella, washed down with a couple of glasses of Rioja Crianza. 

Yokers was very nice and we are back there now writing our blog.

While we at lunch we watched them string banners across the street ready for a festival. We are not sure whether this town is celebrating the festival tonight or tomorrow. We will find out later.

Tomorrow is a short days walk of 18km into Leon.

We will be staying in the Leon Parador Hotel. Just like in the movie!!

The total walk today was 19.1km and we did that in 3h50m as we spent too long over coffees at the mid-point - but who cares! Our average pace today was only 5.0km/hr.

After Leon, our walking days get longer and we have a couple of days of over 30km per day that we are looking forward to.

Hopefully we also start to see some more interesting topography.