El Camino de Santiago - 463kms walked, about 440 to go

After 21 days of walking, we have now officially passed the half-way mark to reaching Santiago de Compostella. We´re enjoying the walk so much, we have decided that if our feet will bear us, we will walk not just to Santiago, but the additional 110kms to the Costa de Morte (the death coast) of the Atlantic. The coast is infamous for many shipwrecks, and our final destination will now be Finisterre, which appropriately means "end of the earth".

Since our last journal entry, we have walked through the city of Burgos, and dozens of tiny towns which dot the plains of the meseta, in central-northern Spain. The terrain has been flat, flat, flat, with fields of cereals, big skies streaked with the contrails of passing jets, and towns where you can see the towers of the cathedral at least 3 to 4kms before you will arrive there. Almost all the towers of the churches provide perfect spots for at least 4 or 5 storks to build their nests.

Our legs and backs are feeling strong, and our feet were doing quite well, until 3 days ago, when we had our longest day yet - 39kms. We had planned to walk 27kms (which was already a bit longer than our usual 23-25kms) but when we arrived at Terradillos de los Templarios, the one albergue in town was full. Another 6kms and we arrived at San Nicolas, which unfortunately was also full. So, another 7kms and we arrived hot and exhausted and blistery at Sahagun, where fortunately there were lots of beds. It was the first time that there was "no room at the inn" for us, and we are hoping that as more and more pilgrims join the route, it won´t always be a mad dash for a bed. Our legs handled the distance no problem, but our feet are still recovering from the blisters we received.

It´s a cool thing to walk with your spouse for six to seven hours each day. Our conversations range from some serious stuff, to streams of jokes from Edwin (which he may have told me more than once since we´ve been together as I always forget the punch lines), to our daily scavenger hunt for things along the road - 50 points each for mice (dead or alive), millipedes, snails, slugs, and lizards.

We continue to meet some very nice peregrinos (pilgrims) along the way. There´s a saying on the Camino that you will always see the same people at least twice, and so far this has proved to be true. We tend to take more rest days than most, as we have much more time, but we seem to catch up somehow to some of the same people with whom we started in France.

We have just arrived in Leon, a city of 130,000 people, and the last large city before we reach Santiago. We arrived in time to take in some of the festivities for Corpus Christi - there was a huge procession with people carrying statues, interspersed by girls in white throwing flowers and confetti, and accompanied by a brass band. Tomorrow we will take a rest day to look at the spectacular cathedral and old walled city. The next part of our walk will include some mountain ranges, so it will be good to give our feet a day to rest.

Location: Leon, Spain