Day 17 - Terradillos de Los Templarios to Hermanillos de la Calzada

Breakfast in the albergue. We were really interested in the weather after the difficult rain yesterday and we were pleased to see it looked much better but still overcast.
We set off on the path and although it was cold the sky soon started to show signs of clearing.

We passed a strange house, built underground almost like the Hobbits.

Then past windmills which we have seen almost every day.

A Camino marker by the side of the road

We went through a couple of little villages with old bridges and some monuments to the Camino

Soon we were on the "senda" or Camino path beside the highway. It is rather boring so we try and avoid it where possible. Today we had to use it for about the first half of the days walk but then we could take a path well away through the country, away from the main roads. We made good time to the town of Sahagún. I had never heard of it but it has a population of 170,000 so will be one of the larger towns we visit on the Camino. We got there at about 9:30 am and soon found a nice café for a café con leche and a croissant.
By now the sun had cleared many of the clouds and we started to shed some of our warm clothes. For me it time to finally make the convertible trousers into shorts, to take off my jacket and to change from cap to sun hat.

We had difficulty finding the turn off to the country route we wanted to take but later found it. The map in my guide book was wrong. We were soon headed to the little village of Calzado de Coto where we found the little "Tienda, shop" and bought our boccadillos for lunch. As soon as we were outside the village we came across some benches and enjoyed our sandwiches in the sun.
Then back on the path for another 9 km on an old Roman road towards our goal for tonight. It was fairly flat and straight and passed through fields of crops, small groups of trees, but no farms or other buildings.

Then past a pilgrims well and a small picnic area.

Finally, just before we reached the little village of Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos we had a nice view of the mountains with snow to the North of us.

This is a very small town in the middle of nowhere. We decided to stop at an Albergue in an old school building because we thought they would at least have plenty of toilets! See, our expectations are not excessive. However, we still haven't realized that an older school building in a small village in Spain in the middle of nowhere is a two room schoolhouse with a stove in one corner. It may never have had inside toilets of course! However it had 16 beds downstairs in units of 4 bunks to a unit. The Señora in charge gave us specific instructions like a school teacher, no food in the sleeping areas, lights out at 10:00, no sound before 6:00 am and due to limited hot water, first get wet, then turn off water, soap up, then rinse with very little water. All instructions with detailed hand actions!
Well we went and got settled and then I went to the shower. I had just got into it when there was a scream from the next shower. The Bulgarian girl there had followed instructions but when it came to rinse there was already only cold water. I washed my feet and decided the rest could wait until tomorrow! There must have been only about a gallon total.
Anyway we managed and for €5 for the night was fine. There was not much choice in the village anyway. By the end of the day all the beds were full and we seemed to manage with just 2 toilets.
We went out to look around the village and found a bar. The sun was shining so we sat outside but we had to move the table and chairs into the road to be in the sun. We sat there for about an hour but since there was no traffic it didn't seem to bother anyone that we were sitting in the middle of the road..

Each time we ordered a beer we also got some tapas (free)

We needed some supplies and food to take with us tomorrow since there is nothing on our way for the first 18km. The local supermarket opens at 5:00 pm. Look closely at the sign! It says "Supermarket"!

After Werner and I had finished we waited outside for Josef since there was only room inside for about 5 people and others were waiting.

We went to one of the 2 restaurants for our Peregrino dinner. The food was excellent. For the main course I had braised lamb

The red wine is always included in the €10 meal.
To bed at 9:30 after a good day. I thought the blog would be a short one but it seems to have got longer than I expected.
Today we walked 27 km, 17 miles for a total of 440 km, 273 miles

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