The night was okay with the 7 other people except I hate it when someone sets their alarm and then doesn't get up. Some yip yo set his for 6 a.m., shut it off and immediately went back to sleep. I'd been awake since about 4 with no chance of falling back asleep so it isn't as if it woke me, but it certainly woke others. We were lucky because our room was at the end of the building. We had to walk through a huge room full of bunks to go to the bathroom but could keep our door shut and room pretty quiet. Not sure why I didn't sleep but luckily it didn't affect me riding today.
We spent a lot of today on good secondary highways but also on the gravel Camino itself. It was easier riding for a couple of reasons: I wasn't a complete newby so felt more comfortable but we also were going through some pretty flat terrain. That flat terrain is what I expected the whole Camino - wrong! wrong! wrong! However going down a hill today we got up to 49.2 km/h. That's a bit too fast for me although you move the odometer at that speed! I have a guide book called Camino de Santiago by John Brierly and it has been a good companion. Each part of the Camino is well mapped and he suggests hostels and sights to see along the way. The first leg of our journey today looks like this. We started at the bottom of the page at Frómista and 19.3 km later, I turned the page. The Camino routes are shown: the orange route is what 80% of pilgrims follow and the green route is more rustic. The grey lines indicate secondary roads and usually there is a path beside for the walkers. The bikers tend to stay on the highways. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending which way you look at it, it also shows elevation so I know the hell ahead-
Tonight we splurged on accommodation. A four bed albergue room costs 15 Euro each and a two bed hotel room with PRIVATE bath costs 45 Euro. Hope I sleep well! We are only 44 km from León where I hope to get my bike fixed. The front derailler needs adjusting - every time I try to use those gears it slips off and unfortunately the back derailler doesn't allow me to go as fast with as little effort as the front. Also, the back gears are starting to slip a little bit, all thanks to my jam session this morning, so I'll check out a bike shop in León to get it adjusted. Buen Camino!
The boot rack in the albergue! Lots of dusty shoes!
Also in the albergue - pardon???
Leaving the albergue, the church looked great in the sunshine. I love the roof tiles-
After a breakfast of coffee and a croissant au chocolat or Napolitana we were on our way. Not far out of town, my chain came off and I jammed it pretty tight in the sprockets. It took about 20 minutes to fix. Thank God for Chris is all I can say-
Along the way-
We saw a combine harvesting sunflowers - actually he was augering the seeds into the truck. This was a true representation of today. I hate that it's blurry-
We left the province of Castilla y León and La Roija and entered the province of León-
The Camino is one little town after another. Sometimes the route takes us through a town, only to join up with the path on the other side. I'm not sure what some of these places would do without the pilgrim traffic.
In Sahágun, we saw the Arch of San Benito. It was once the front façade of the Monasterio de San Facundo 's church. It dates from the 17th century-
Dried plants in the ditch look like some kind of thistle-
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