Another flat tire...

Hahaha, we have another flat tire, Frans to be exact. So he is fidgeting around with his front tire and this time inserting our miracle working anti-flat protection along with the inner tube.

Once he's done we'll find a cafe for some light refreshments. We just obtained our second stamp of the day, and the sun is shining at the Puerta del Sol. It was meant to be.

Looks as though Frans is wrapping up the fight with his front wheel, time to schlepp our sore asses to a terrace.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe


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Just passed Hospital de Orbigo

We have cycled some 35 Km's which puts us over half of the total 65 we have for today. Rabanal del Camino is our target for today, where we expect to land in the next couple of hours.

It's striking that we have seen loads more cyclists on the Camino today, we figured many of them probably chose León as their starting point.

This morning we ran into some people we had met before. Over breakfast by chance the Dutch woman, and her Swiss toy boy she picked up along the way, walked into the same bar. We are likely to run into them again I'm sure.

Couple of cyclists that just passed us, as we stopped for a picnic, are doing a Camino light. All their luggage is hauled by a mate in a van, as they lightly pedal over the trails. Such blasphemy.

The weather thus far has been very nice, we were able to take off our rain gear and go at it short sleeved.

More when we get to Rabanal.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe





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In León getting ready for the cold

We have our feet still firmly planted on Leónese soil, and have made some preparations for the cold weather. Extra gloves, some protective clothing. In addition we passed by a bicycle store where we bought some tube protecors, shields that you put inside the tire and will help prevent flats. A fellow MTB pilgrim let us in on this public secret yesterday. Anybody need any spare tubes? We have plenty. :)

We are getting rady to leave, just a couple more stops before we head into the wilderness. We need some bread and SD cards for the camera as I am shooting quite some footage for our upcoming Camino podcast.

We have 65 Km's ahead of us today.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe


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Just arrived in León

Frans and I just checked into our hotel in the beautiful old centre of León. The last 20 km's were pretty uneventful, besides a nice off-road downhill into the city. We had to make our way through the outskirts and were able find our hotel real easily. Google maps on the BlackBerry is our friend.

We had little in the way of pilgrim traffic into León, kind of get the feeling that many may skip it and head straight for the mountains.

For tomorrow we have a fairly easy route planned, as we want to make sure we can take in some of León before we wizz off again.

No doubt we'll have another amazing dinner tonight, already spotted a few places on the way that look like very good candidates.

We are well on our way now. One thing is for sure, from a nature and outdoors perspective the Madrid Camino before Sahagun was much nicer. Let's see how it gets once we head into the mountains of León and Galicia after that.

Now for a much needed shower and quick siesta.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe


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Lunch at Mansilla de las Mulas

We cycled an aggregate 80 Km's today, and have just 20 to go until we will reach León. For the overall trip we have already completed more than half, from here we have another 320 to go until sainthood.

We thought that our Camino was quite tough, until I passed a couple on bicycles just before lunch. One of them had just cycled from The Netherlands, and the other was on his 21st day from Switzerland. OMG.... Impressive stuff, respect.

Another funny occurrence was a father and son on horse-back. The Australian couple we met yesterday had mentioned they met them on way, and indeed after chatting with them they were the same horse people. We had been following hoof tracks along the camino yesterday afternoon and this morning. Now we passed them and we are on the lookout for a supposed Jesus freak who is traveling by donkey and cart. Have not spotted him yet, but there are plenty of crusty unshaven Jesus wannabees along this stretch of the Camino.

More later from León, now for relaxation and a tiny drop of red wine to get the blood flowing again...

Hasta la próxima
Douwe




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In Sahagún for a coffee break

We made it to Sahagún, a cool 40 Km's already behind us today. No rain yet, and a pretty good tail wind made sure we got here relatively quickly.

More importantly, we are now on the most official part, the Camino's of all Camino's. Also known as El Camino Francés. What's striking is that we have already seen more crusties (smelly pilgrims) in the 10 minutes that we got here than the three previous days on the Madrid leg. I am sure my horn will be useful to draw attention and help dodge the odd crusty. Only another 50 or so Km's to go to León, our target for today.

Bread with tomato and olive oil just got put in front of me, so....
Hasta la próxima

Douwe


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We have arrived at Villalón de Campos

We have had an extremely relaxing day today, well... compared to the past couple of days anyway. We arrived in Villalón de Campos, which meant a total trip of some 70 Km's. We got a little lucky as most of the way we were supported by a fairly strong back wind. We did get our fair share of rain, but it did not bother us as much as perhaps the first day. The sky was scattered with rain clouds and both Frans and I thought we could outsmart and bypass this one particularly dark and nasty one. We failed miserably, an consequently got drenched to the bone. We looked for some shelter in an old ruin, something that used to be a church in a small village called Moral de la Reina. As if things were not bad enough, I decided to relieve myself against the ruin. Naturally the rain started coming down even stronger. Such blasphemy. Frans had to change back to his rain gear, but luckily by this time we only had some 15 Km's to go.

The B&B we checked into is out of this world. A complete contrast to last night's "hotel". We were thinking of displaying our new found skills of burping family tunes like "She'll be coming around the mountain.." but we figured our host might not be too impressed.

For those of you that have been a little concerned with yesterday's picture of me, in which I looked exhausted: I am actually doing quite well. See above picture of my freshly shaven face basking in the sun.

On the map you may be able to see where we are. Villalón is just north west of Palencia.

Frans and I are enjoying a wonderful and rich bottle of Ribera de Duero on the terrace and I decided to re-read Catcher in the Rye, but the Spanish translation which I quite like.

Tomorrow we are heading to León, quite looking forward to that as I hear it is an amazing city.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe

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