Day 18 - Bercianos del Real Camino to Mansilla de las Mulas

 We were certainly tightly packed last night, sixteen of us on eight bunks in a comparatively small room at the Albergue in Bercianos del Real Camino; a night of varied smells and noises and almost impossible to get to the bathroom.

Excellent dinner though with the usual gang plus a rather nice landscape gardener from Glastonbury and a retired financier from Hong Kong. This chap was brought up under British rule but is quite an advocate for the Chinese system - interesting to chat to as I get into my ‘China after Mao’ tome.


My final day on the Meseta today as tomorrow I get into León, so long flat path tracking along the road with little to look at apart from the odd mural.
Strangely, the bathroom at the hostel in Mansilla de las Mulas had a bath. So, as I was first there, the sociopath in me decided to lock the door and climb in, oblivious to the pathetic taps on the door from fellow pilgrims, desperate to clean their teeth - I’m sure there’ll be plenty of opportunity for me to atone later on.

I’m now sitting in a little square in this ancient walled town near the hostel, very much at peace with the world (and very clean)


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