Distance traveled: 26.6 kilometers

This was the last real day of the Meseta. Although the Meseta actually continues a bit beyond León, the big city I reached the next day, I think this stretch between Burgos and León is what people have in mind when they think about the part of the Camino that challenges you mentally. Past León, the landscape becomes more varied again (we get some forests and significant changes in elevation), and there is just a different energy to the experience.

Adam and I left Bercianos and stopped in the next town for breakfast. We found our friend Mark and my Australian friends just finishing what they promised was one of the best breakfasts they’d encountered, and Mark ended up lingering to walk on with us. I ran into my French friends again as well after not having seen them since the day I arrived in Frómista.

The next several hours looked pretty much like this:

At this point, the Camino runs parallel to the tracks for the trains that run between León and Burgos; the tracks are far enough away that you can’t hear the trains, but you can see them on the right side as you walk on. When I eventually took a train back across Spain from Santiago, I could see this part of the Camino (with its one tree per ten meters all along the path), and it brought me a lot of joy.

It was easy walking on a fine day. We stopped a couple of times to take a break at picnic tables that had been set up near the path.

As we had for Burgos, we stayed outside León near enough that we’d only have to walk a few hours in the morning. Mansilla de las Mulas was a cute little town, though there wasn’t much we could do or see there because it was a national holiday, and everything that wasn’t an albergue was closed.

I went with Sam and Rosa (the Australians) for a refreshing foot soak in the river. What a lovely place this would be to play as a kid in the summer!

Our hostel that night wins the prize for the most cramped quarters I experienced on the Camino. We had 10 people sleeping in a room that wasn’t any larger than an average bedroom – things were very close indeed!

I was excited to get to León the next day. I’d heard that the walk into León was possibly worse than the one into Burgos, but I was better able to manage my expectations at this point, and once again, I had a hotel room to look forward to!