Corona virus decided to walk the Camino as well. Its strategy to win the relay race to Santiago was to create as many batons as possible. Some batons were always quite far behind us and these virus rivals could be pretty much ignored. When we reached Burgos, the virus had just started the Camino. When walking through La Meseta, the virus was moving through the Basque country. As the result, Camino sections in the Basque country were now closed. However, there were other batons dangerously close to us. All were running in circles around León because the local government confined the city.
At this point of the Camino, all pilgrims who wanted to walk through León had concentrated in the only open albergue in Mansilla de las Mulas, 20 km far from León. All twenty bottom bunks were occupied! Until the last moment it was not actually certain if pilgrims would be allowed to enter the city.
Instead, the city organized a free bus to transport pilgrims from Mansilla to La Virgen del Camino, bypassing the confined area.
The atmosphere in the albergue was a bit tense. In the end, pilgrims were allowed to pass through León, but without the ability to stop for food or accommodation.
Taking the bus was not mandatory and this divided pilgrims into two categories. People from the first one were absolutely determined to walk this Camino stage against all odds. Skipping a stage was against their pride. Some people simply had a law-abiding attitude “if they let us pass, then we shall pass”. As I heard later, some of them even stayed in albergues in the city, because they were not closed. There was a French woman who came walking all the way from Lyon. She absolutely had to see the city of León, because she’s from Lyon. Do you get that? It’s supposed to be a valid reason (to risk infection).
Juan and I belonged to the second category. We did not feel bad about taking the bus. We actually found it respectable towards the citizens of León. They were confined in their homes and could not even travel to a nearby village to meet a family member. I wouldn’t feel good in their place if I saw foreigners passing on the street, because different rules applied to them. Taking a bus was also a good decision for practical reasons.
Covid situation was getting worse in many towns in the province of León, so this would move us one day closer to Galicia, the least infected region of Spain.
We spent the evening in Mansilla with our new Camino Papá, Santiago. He is a man full of interesting stories and he loves entertaining an audience. This makes him great at his current profession – he owns a Basque pintxo restaurant on the Costa Brava. Every dinner with him felt like a restaurant experience where the owner himself is paying you special attention. It was exciting to hear him order a 1 kg steak and give detailed instructions how to prepare it. He was very pleased with the result. This was the only thing he ate for dinner and it had to be perfect. Santiago’s Camino basically means following great food.
I don’t think we ever ate anything not-so-great on the Camino up to this point. My favorite restaurant was in Castrojeriz, where they served huge portions of stew-like beef. The waitress reminded me of my grandma: “Me dicen si quieren más…(Tell me if you want more)”. Another great restaurant was recommended to us in Estella. “They cook really well, but they are not very cariñosos (tender).” Indeed, exactly. An old grumpy lady served me the most delicious pumpkin soup and an amazing trout from the local river (see the cover picture). It also came in grandma-like portions. Usually in non-covid times, local farmers offer their products to always-hungry pilgrims. We really missed that. Nevertheless, Juan and I still managed to experience local food treasures around León.
At 9 am we took the bus with approximately ten other pilgrims. I realized that I was the only woman in the bus. Actually, there were not so many women on the Camino anymore. When we started, the ratio of sexes was 1:1. The bus passed through some quite boring neighborhoods. Even my Camino guidebook recommends to take a bus from León to La Virgen. The stage description starts with: “If you’ve chosen to walk …” Well, we might still come back one day to walk it.
There were two Camino paths leading to Hospital de Órbigo, our next overnight stop. We chose the shorter one along a national road. The Camino often followed a highway and there was never much traffic, so we didn’t really mind. This time we definitely made a wrong choice. The road was buzzing with trucks all day long. Kind of strange for a confined city, no? In our wishful thinking to get far from the road, we managed to divert from the Camino path. There was a loose German Shepard to help us realize that we were lost.
The first food gem on the way was a sausage factory.
From the outside it looked a bit abandoned, but then we noticed two women dressed in white, smoking outside. They invited us in and there was also a sign directing visitors to a shop. We were very curious to check the products. One look into the room and we realized that the shop had not been operational for quite a while. It was full of stacked furniture and empty cardboard boxes. We were about to leave when we almost bumped into a man dressed in gray uniform. We expressed a wish to buy some chorizo for lunch. The man raised an eyebrow. It seemed like pilgrims (actually random visitors) did not come to the factory these days. Then he guided us to an office and introduced us to his female colleague. She also looked surprised. The man left the room to fetch our chorizo and he came up with a huge 500 g piece. We agreed to take it and asked for the price. The man found an old calculator somewhere in the closet. It took him an entire minute of clicking to print a small sheet of paper. “Is 3 € ok?” That’s a great outlet price!
It was almost lunch time and we were looking for a nice place to rest. We passed a huge parking lot outside a restaurant occupied by a few trucks. Juan was very serious about eating lunch there.
He remembered advice from his Madrid family: “Whenever you find a restaurant where truck drivers stop, you must eat there.”
They were absolutely right. It was hard to resist the temptation not to eat the entire menu. For my own sake I only ordered one dish, otherwise I would not feel like walking for the next 15 km. The restaurant slowly filled with all kinds of workers.
I did go crazy on the desserts though. I invented a Camino dessert rule – order something that you have never heard of and do not ask what it is.
Think about it, can Spaniards spoil a dessert? Too much chocolate? Too many fruits? No such thing.
This restaurant had around ten dessert choices and I recognized maybe two of them. I picked the one which sounded pretty 🙂 I ended up with a pastel de hojaldre and Juan had leche frita. Both delicious. I strongly recommend following my dessert rule on the Camino and any advice from madrileños regarding food.
Walking along the road was a mentally draining experience. We could barely hear each other and trucks were moving the air right into our faces. I bought us a pack of cookies in a small bakery and we ended up marching to the tunes of the Cookie Monster song. This Camino stage felt endless. Luckily there was a detour from the main road around 5 km before our next albergue. Once behind a curve, we felt a big relief from the noise. However, the path was going through a farmland and our noses strongly discouraged us from going forward. We kept going anyway and there it was – a huge pile of shit. A perfect visualization of our feelings about walking this part of the Camino. The detour soon spat us back to the main road. This time we rather tried thinking about dinner.
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