We were up early today in order to leave León by 7:00 am. It's funny how quickly Rich and I have settled into a morning Camino ritual: get dressed (after having laid clothes out the night before), fill our hydration packs with water, apply moleskin and blister bandages as needed (this is a good 15 minute ritual for Rich), slather our feet with blister cream or Vaseline, apply sunscreen, and finish packing up our suitcases and backpacks.
The route out of León was not as scenic as the route into town, as we walked through a number of older, run down areas. It was hard to tell where León ended and the suburb towns began. Once through the town of Virgen del Camino, however, we were finally outside León and its suburbs. From here the scenery changed to scraggly wheat fields (much more scraggly and weedy than the neatly tended fields we've been walking past over the last few days). The landscape was dotted with a lot more trees today and the terrain has now become more rolling. It's a nice change from the flatland.
After 13+ miles we arrived at our walking destination, but not our sleeping destination. We are staying at a lovely country cottage outside the town of Villavante, about 6 miles further down the Camino. We ate dinner at a long communal table with dinner served family style. Our dining companions were a Dutch grandmother named Maude, two German (?) ladies named Hilda and Marie and a couple from Connecticut named Margo and Gary. Margo and Gary are avid cyclists and have done a number of cycling vacations in the US and Europe. Needless to say, we had a lot in common.
From Villavante, we now have 12 more stages, 12 more days and 176 more miles to Santiago. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue these last few legs of our journey.
Buen Camino
Trying to navigate via streetlamp as we leave León
Today's typical scenery
Our country cottage is a renovated mill
Exploring the grounds before dinner
View of the dining room area
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