Bercianos Del Real Camino 13.4 miles

Double dose of posts today. I’m probably uploading photos too quickly and the WiFi cannot handle it.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I loved today so much. The weather was perfect. The walk was shorter and we had prettier scenery. I got a faboulous Mother’s Day video from my family, survivor letter like, that made me cry. The churches that I visited all had beautiful Virgin Mary statues that made me thank God for Rita, Jessie and Cili.

We got into town just in time for the only Mass of the day and we got a special pilgrim blessing.

Today was supposed to be 11.9 miles but we went out of the way a bit to go to the office of Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina in Sahagún, aka where we got our halfway certificate. About 2 miles prior to arriving at the office, we walked across a medieval bridge over the Valderaduey river and lead to the Ermita de la Virgen del Puente. Then we all took turns getting photos under the iconic two huge statues, one of Alphonse VI the Brave (1065-1109)- Promoter and Protector of the Way of St. James and on the other side Bernardo de Seriedad (Spanish name; Aeseriac: French)), an Abad considered one of the founders of Sahagun. They were placed there in 2013 as a landmark for the halfway point.

Sahagun has quite a history with the Romans and the Moors. I wish we would have had more time to explore.

We are staying in a private room in Bercianos above a restaurant. It’s much nicer than last night’s stay. The town is a village of about 165 people and it seems like 100 of them came through the restaurant when we had our 3 pm dinner. They sit outside and play games. Today’s game was dominos.

We have a longer walk tomorrow but plan to get an early start again to avoid the warmer afternoon but the temp is better now after yesterday’s rain.