Sahagun to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, then on to Leon, June 7 & 8

Not a whole lot of scenery along these two stages....

The first was from Sahagun to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, a distance of only 14 km (this was a rest day after covering over 50 km over the previous two days).  We had a leisurely breakfast in Sahagun, then headed out of town.  After about 5 km we passed through the tiny farming village of Calzada de Coto, then the cultivated fields gave way to some bits of truly open country.  This is a rarity: pretty much everything we've seen that isn't too steep to plow is cultivated.  We were following an old Roman road; the rock surface is still intact in parts.

Here's a 180 degree panorama as we approached Calzadilla.  Farm fields on both sides of our track, nothing else but a lot of sky.

Because of the short stage, we were at our destination by a little after noon.  We found a great room in a private albergue, enjoyed a nice lunch of salad and delicious vegetable soup, and even had our clothes washed (first time other than hand washing since Tiebas, a few weeks ago).

Next morning we headed out of town on our next stage, about 25 km to Mansilla de las Mulas.  Once again we were following the old Roman road, and once again we were walking through the middle of nowhere.  For the whole stage, we didn't pass a single house, or farm (we saw fields, but no structures other than in the distance), or place to fill water bottles.  Nada.

Here's Ellen on the old Roman road.  It looks a lot like a dirt road, but is much more historic.

The big excitement was passing near a rail line, and seeing this sign.  The other big excitement was passing the 700 km mark on our trek.  We forgot to take a picture, but will get one up soon.

The following stage, from Mansilla de las Mulas into the big city of Leon, is described in our guide books as a fairly unpleasant slog mostly alongside busy highways.  In common with many other pilgrims, we were planning to cover it by bus.  As we approached Mansilla, we decided to just take the bus that day rather than waiting til the morning.  By 2:30 pm we were walking into town, and at 3 boarded a local bus (along with several of the pilgrims we'd met in the albergue the night before) to Leon.

After a good deal of walking around and phoning, we located a pleasant and reasonably priced hostal in the city.