Day 22 Bercianos Real Camino to Mansilla de las Mulas (April 9)

We got up this morning and both of us were out of sorts physically. We didn´t even have a coffee! We walked about 4 miles to El Bergo Ranero. We ran into a bunch of Spanish gentlemen Cullen has become acquainted with and they recommended he have a cup of Manzanilla caliente - a cup of hot tea. We continued on and ran into Becky. She couldn´t walk another step last night and so she stayed at the hostel in Bercianos rather than walking to the far end of town to the albergue. A good choice for her since she had already walked quite a ways when we ran into her yesterday. And, she had a room with a tub! We arrived in Mansilla de las Mulas via the alternate route as recommended in the Brierley book. Cullen was continuing to have tummy trouble today. The municipal albergue was quite nice. The hospitalero, Laura, is an angel. Soon after siesta she had a line of pilgrims in her office waiting for blister treatments, tummy trouble, muscle aches. She took care of my blisters and those of many others. The Finnish woman had been having shin problems, Laura´s mom gave her a massage. Dieter had been there for a second night with tummy problems and she was taking care of him and she also gave Cullen something for his tummy. Since Cullen really couldn´t go out for a meal I shared a simple meal of cheese, bread and banana with Anne (German) and the Finnish woman - I can´t remember her name right now. A few of us stayed up later and had a great discussion with Laura about The Way. We discussed different historical stories, symbols and traditions. She seems to have devoted her life to the Camino and to the pilgrims. I had a good night´s sleep. We went to a bar around the corner for coffee and Dieter and Sara came in. We all took the bus the 18km to Leon.