Day 14: Calzadilla de la Cueza – Sahagún: 14 miles
Friday, September 23, 2016: Departed: 8:30am, Arrived 2:30pm
Today was noteworthy for good and bad – the “good” that this morning we passed the unofficial “halfway” mark between St. Jean and Santiago, which coincides with the end of today being our “halfway” date, now having completed two full weeks on the Camino, and since we hope to do it in four, that means we are on target. It has gone by fast!
The “bad” is that as I suspected the night before, I have come down with a nasty sinus cold. Kim also woke up with a sore throat, so in the aftermath of our longest day yet, and feeling that our “feet” were getting into their groove, and the bed bug bites were behind us, our heads have succumbed to some bug. Fortunately, we were already in position to make today’s stretch a shorter one and we were the last pilgrims to leave the albergue having slept in a little, but the day felt pretty miserable with a stuffy, aching head, and constantly dripping nose. The legs did their dutiful job and just kept moving, and I barely recall which towns we went through, and took few pictures.
We chose Sahagún as our stop town, and furthermore decided to get ourselves a private room in a central hotel (for all of 40 euro) so that we could nurse and rest our sick bodies, and not spread our germs to other pilgrims. We also had already worn all our cleans clothes, most of them twice, so we hand-washed laundry in the terrace sink and hung our clothes to dry. We tried walking around the town, but we just felt lousy. We bought some medicine at a pharmacy and some junk food at a market and retreated back to our rooms. We rested and napped some more, and though we didn’t feel like it, we forced ourselves out to get a proper dinner. It actually settled well on us, and though a Friday night with some nice local life in the plazas, we promptly went back to our room to retire early. Here’s hoping for a restful night, and improved conditions tomorrow.