Camino Day 1 Leon-Villadangos del Paramo

Sept.23 2010

Day 1
23Km, 4.5 hours

First time ever biking 23 km.....yeah!!!!!!!
We didn’t make it out of Leon and we’re lost. The kids played with dogs and sat on cobblestone paths as an older gentleman tried to tell us where the best places to eat in Leon. Ruth’s pilgrim guide warned us of well meaning locals, who will send you in the wrong direction. Thanks ol’ man- we are going this way! The number 1 rule of camino we will learn….follow the yellow arrows and sea shells….and hope they don’t point different ways at the same time (they will). We learned to always follow yellow arrows and sea-shells-not people in berets.

We finally found the right path and met real Spain. We had café con leche’s and an omelet that came with fries and hot dog for lunch…weird I know. We ended up in Villadangos del paramo. A kind of two bit town that promised a caravan park with a pool. They lied. The pool was closed. Rob went on a random search for food while we set up tents and I tackled laundry. We ended up having lentil soup over the campstove, but Rob forgot the lentils at the store! It rained and so the laundry didn’t dry, but we collapsed in bed by 8:30.

happy

Leon- camino day 1 photos

Camino Day 1 Leon- but first RUTHIE where are you???

Sept. 22 2010

It was almost midnight when we had arrived in Leon after the worst travel experience of the trip. We were told by bike spain we should be okay getting our bikes on the train......don't try it. All trains accept 3 bikes....we took all three, but the conductor did not want to let us on. If it weren't for some very supportive bystanders we would not have got on the train. They complained and held a mini boycott on the platform or we would still be standing there....after all that stress Cammie cried for 3 solid hours till we pulled out the stroller and put him in it.

In the dark of a foreign city we biked until we found our hostel (which Rob had pre-booked praises be) and we found out that our hostel had no windows and that they were two ajoining rooms not one room for all of us. It did however overlook the most incredible Cathedral that was lit up in the night and the wonderful thing about Spain is that everyone is out on the street with their babies at midnight so they didn’t think that we were up for the worst parents of the world award.

I brought the kids downstairs to find breakfast while Rob had gotten on the bike and decided to see if he could find Ruth somewhere in the city. The best is that while the kids and I were downstairs who should come through the door, but Ruthie! So amazing to see family in the middle of our adventure.

Rob eventually showed up and we ate a raisin bun and café-con- leche’s outside underneath the gaze of the Cathedral. The kids were so happy to have someone to play with besides us, and we met all kinds of interesting “peregrino’s” from all over the world and even one man from Etobicoke. Small, small world. After breakfast and check out and speding time in the cathedral we biked to get our pilgrim passports which prove that you are legit to all the pilgrim hostal’s on the way and then we headed out for day one of biking the Camino!


adios modern transport.....hello biking...and walking (the first hill was a doozie.)