Stage 17: Villacazar de Sirga to Calzadilla de la Cueza (24 km--22 degrees)

Sunrise on the meseta was a sight to behold with the Picos de Europa mountains on the horizon--our pictures do not do it justice. The weather was cool when we started out and both Betty and Laurel wore jackets. We have been lucky and not experienced the full wrath of the sun. A combination of an early start and a cool spell has kept our temperature in the mid to high twenties.

We made it to Carrion de Los Condes for coffee and then celebrated 400 kms from Compostela. The walk today was the flattest so far and followed a 2,000 year old roman road, the scenery was reminiscent of Saskatchewan. A small mongrel joined up with us and stayed until we reached the midpoint of our Camino--we celebrated with Karl, a young perigrino from Sweden.

From Carrion de Los Condes to the next town, in this case, our destination of Calzadilla de la Cueza, was a 17 km stretch. This is unusual as we usually see our next village while the last one is still in our rear-view mirror. We met a German pilgrim named Deiter who was hiking the Camino with his older son and walked the last five km together.

We checked into our hostel and had our favourite drink of Spain--agua con gaz (fizzy water) with lemon and ice. Betty just informed us that today (Sunday) is the celebration of San Martin de Tours, patron saint of the village, and so merriment and fireworks will fill our evening!