30 September, Day 9: Boadilla del Camino - Sahagún

Distance: 67.5km



The night before, we had been looking at our plans for the day, using a profile of the route that also shows the towns and distances in between. I didn't have my glasses with me and I told Micael and Oscar that we could make it already to Leon.

We got up at 7am, had a nice breakfast with big bowls of coffee and toasts with marmalade and left by 8:10. I was sore in my lower back and it hurt when I left my leg to mount the bicycle, but it didn't hurt while pedaling. Micael and Oscar's colds were at different stages.

It was 13 degrees, but with high clouds. The camino soon joined the side of the Canal de Castilla, following it until we reached Frómista. We looked for a pharmacy but it was still early, so we continued to Carrión de los Condes, 20km ahead.

Canal de Castilla

The camino goes parallel to a local road with very little transit, so we took the road. The landscape is flat, with very few trees ( Poplar, Populus sp), a bit monotonous, although we'd sometimes meet a shepherd with his sheep. The fields have been harvested, we assume of some cereal and there are a few corn fields. On this stretch, we caught up with the Spanish couple we had met yesterday.



In Carrión de los Condes, we passed the hostel of the Convent of Santa Clara; Micael asked for directions and we went to the town hall square where there was a pharmacy. There, Micael got some cold medicine and Oscar got cough syrup. We then sat down to have a cup of coffee in a cafe across the street, before we carried on.

Having our second breakfast at Carrión de los Condes

We followed by the camino, which goes by an ancient Roman road, straight and relatively flat, with a surface of pebbles. In the one and only uphill bit, I lost my balance and fell, but I managed to control it and just landed gently.


We passed Calzadilla de la Cueza and then followed by the road, as the camino goes parallel to it and there's seldom any traffic, until we reached Terradillos de los Templarios, where we stopped to get a stamp at he Jacques de Molay hostel. Micael was feeling very sleepy and we decided to stop and eat an apple and review our route. That's when we realized that Leon was still 70km away and we had already done more than 50km that day and found out that I had read wrong (no glasses...) and the 96km planned were to the town of Reliegos.

Micael was totally knocked and then we remembered that he had taken the cold medicine with his coffee a couple of hours earlier. We then decided to get to Sahagun and see what we'd do. On the way, another cyclist caught up with us, a fellow from Cordoba, who later waited for us as we wasn't sure of which way to go into town. We arrived together with him in Sahagún and he then continued as his plan was to indeed go all the way to Leon that day.

With Andrés, another cyclist, in Sahagún

As for us, we decided it would be better to stay that day in Sahagun, in the Albergue Viatoris, where we were greeted with a glass of water and a small plate of a delicious rice. The hospitaleras were from Brazil and Argentina, both very nice.


When they assigned us the bunk beds, I requested a lower one (please!); we showered, put our clothes for laundry and the men slept and snored for a while (well, Micael for a few hours). Later, we walked around town, passing a convent, an old monastery and a nice church (San Tirzo). We found a pub to have a beer and later, the attended the Vespers prayer of the Benedictine nuns.


For dinner, we had arranged to have it at the hostel and it was very nice: pasta, veal and dessert.

Micael decided to still follow the dosis recommended by the pharmacist that night, but that he would not take the medicine during the day, or he wouldn't be able to keep awake!