Villavante

Monday, June 16
Today Fr Paul and I got a great start on the last 197.3 miles to Santiago, putting in a full day and coming almost 20 miles! We left Leon early enough, getting out of the hostel by 6:45, and passing by San Marco again, it's still impressive even from just the exterior, and then headed across a medieval bridge out of Leon into the suburbs. One of the towns was The Virgin of the Camino. It is the only town on the Camino with a modern church - built in 1961. And it was definitely modern with large bronze statues of the apostles on the front. We went in, and it has a 17th century altarpiece in a modern setting. It was very nicely done. So we sat in church and prayed morning prayers, and about the time we were done (9:10) we see this Dominican priest setting up for 9:30 Mass. Well we decide to stay and introduce ourselves to Fr. Aurelio, and asked for a stamp for our pilgrim's passport. He was happy to stamp our passports and invited us to concelebrate Mass. Which we did, and then he invited us for coffee, and tried to tell us absolutely everything about the church, and their Dominican house for retired priests and so on. He was 84 years old and full of energy and joy, how could we resist. So it was almost 11 by the time we got on the trail again.
We again took the scenic route that would take us away from the busy highways. Which we definitely found, about 12 miles of straight flat gravel road, over flat dry land. The day was sunny and it got hot, but there was always a breeze and the going was pretty nice.
So we made it to Villar de Mazarife by 2:30, but after our 2 day rest and easy morning, we decided to push on. Unfortunately the next hostel was almost 6 miles, or 2 hours away. We really didn't have any problem with that. Perhaps we are really tired instead of just tired, but I know I'll be in bed early, and we have made tomorrow's journey a bit easier.
I'm thinking of all you back home, and have kept you in my prayers. God bless!