The novelty today was the number of bodegas built into the hillsides by some communities. I was also surprised by the number of villages, although “services” for pilgrims are not a feature. That’s not a complaint – it’s an observation, and is kind of nice as that means I am walking through Spain rather than being on a pilgrim train.

My guidebook has no instructions on this route and I don’t have KML/GPS tracks, so I’m dependent on yellow arrows for any deviation from the roads. The arrows are infrequent and there are places where I have to guess, but I have gotten fairly comfortable with that and haven’t gotten significantly lost yet.

The arrows completely disappeared for an hour this afternoon so I had no idea if there was an alternative path I should be on. Finally a sign appeared!

Hmmm.  The left route appeared to follow the highway, but the right route headed up a dusty farm road over the hill and farther away. What to take? I didn’t come to Spain to walk the highway to La Bañeza. By the way, why did I come to Spain? This is a ridiculous thing to be doing. In the heat I had to resort to my fetching buff ear flaps –  there was no one around to see.

Finally,  the city of La Bañeza appeared after fields and fields and unidentified industrial facilities, and yellow arrows took me to the albergue.  I rushed out for a delicious meal before the restaurant kitchens closed at 4 and I managed to top up my Spanish phone card. Then back for an early  evening,  by myself in the albergue full of old hospital beds!