{"id":22480,"date":"2026-06-07T11:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=22480"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:33:22","slug":"via-lemovicensis-the-road-less-traveled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/via-lemovicensis-the-road-less-traveled\/","title":{"rendered":"Via Lemovicensis: the Road Less Traveled\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

B<\/span>reakfast wasn’t scheduled to begin at the albergue until 7 AM, so Herve and I elected to skip it in favor of the next village. We were walking by 6:40. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The morning was cold and windy, and we were greeted by a cacophony of birds. After winding through the village, we found ourselves on the same white gravel road of days passed. Unlike yesterday, though, instead of paralleling the highway it struck out into the Meseta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were both a lot more energetic this morning than the past few days. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 7 AM, we turned near a solar farm, and the Camino again began following the highway. We were soon roadwalking on asphalt. Fortunately, this only lasted a few hundred meters before we were back on the gravel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We entered the little village of Moratinos, with its hobbit hole bodegas, at about 7:20. There’s definitely been a lot of development here in the last decade. This used to be just a dusty little Meseta town, and now there is a giant bar\/albergue right at the entrance to the village. And this is where we had our breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We left the bar at 7:50. I counted two albergues and at least two bars in the little village. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the gravel ribbon through endless seas of grain, at about 8:10 we passed a small vineyard. I can’t remember the last one we saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The landscape grew hillier, with fields of poppies stretching off to our right, and farmed valleys to our left. A rabbit scampered across the Camino, bound for the fields. Somewhere in the distance, a cuckoo insistently wished us a a good morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we approached the village of San Nicol\u00e1s del Real Camino, the wheatfields gave away to vegetables. We passed another cluster of bodegas, partially hidden by the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reached the village at 8:30 and stopped into the bar for orange juice and a hearty second breakfast. We left right at 9 AM, passing the second locked church of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the village, the Camino returned to the same roadside program as yesterday, with a little hedge between us and the highway. To our left, the wheatfields ran nearly to the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime before 9:30, we passed by highway bridge with a stone marker welcoming us to the province of Le\u00f3n. In the distance, we could already see the city of Sahag\u00fan laid out in the valley below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Camino narrowed to a dirt path that now wound its way downhill away from the highway. The air was perfumed with blossoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, it didn’t last. Soon enough, the little dirt path was running next to the highway, though this time with an intermittent intervening floral hedge on the right, as well as a line of acacia trees between us and the fields on the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At about 9:50, the Camino pulled a little farther from the highway and became a tree-lined dirt and gravel road. We crossed the highway at the R\u00edo Valderaduey. The tree-lined Camino followed alongside the river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brought us at about 10 AM to the thousand year-old Ermita Virgen del Puente, the traditional halfway point of the Camino Franc\u00e9s in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After walking a dirt and stone road through green fields , at about 10:20, we passed under a highway bridge. There was another small field of tilled earth and a field of poppies, and then we were walking on an asphalt street through the industrial outskirts of the city of Sahag\u00fan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We passed the train station at about 10:35 and moved into a more residential area. At the bull ring, we turned and crossed a bridge over the railroad tracks and into the central part of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We took a Kas Lim\u00f3n at a likely looking terrace bar before continuing to look at the city’s monuments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very little remains of the once immense Real Monasterio de San Benito. The fa\u00e7ade of the monastery now stands as a gate on the street for cars. A tower and some crumbling walls and other entrances ring a large area that now contains streets and more modern buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site is surrounded by a number of smaller churches. The only one that was actually open was San Tirso, and it appears to have been transformed into a museum and is no longer used as a church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grabbed a quick lunch, and were on the road again at 12:10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was pretty warm now, and I was confident that once we were out on the open road the umbrella would come out. We crossed an old stone bridge over the R\u00edo Cea and soon found ourselves walking on a tree-lined gravel road beside the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually both the width of the path and the amount of tree cover grew thinner. Just before 12:30, we passed a ruin to our left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We crossed a highway interchange at a roundabout, and after this the trees returned for a little while. The path grew quite narrow in spots, to the point where I couldn’t use sticks for bits of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trees were intermittent, and it was beginning to get quite warm, but the bushes and trees would close in on the path often enough that it made the umbrella impractical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before 1 PM, the Camino crossed the highway into a delightfully cool green tunnel of trees. Unfortunately, this was followed by some actual on-the-highway walking into the tiny farming hamlet of Calzada del Coto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The little Hermitage at the start of the town was locked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the village I saw many of the older, more traditional iconic painted yellow arrows rather than the newer signs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up went the umbrella, and out we went on a broad stony road into the Meseta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are taking an alternate route the next day and a half or so. I suppose it’s not really an alternate in the true sense of the word \u2013 it is in fact the original Camino route, following the path of an ancient Roman road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My contrast, the modern Camino route follows along the highway. Frankly, I’m sick of walking along the highway at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grassy meadows, thick with wildflowers, spread out on both sides of us. Random small clumps of trees made it look a little like the African Savannah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road briefly turned to asphalt as we climbed a bridge over railway tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At about 1:50, the very broad road we had been walking split into three equal parts. The Camino took the middle road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the bushy trees grew in number and began crowding the roadside. They provided no shade, of course, and only serve served to hide the open landscape from the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the afternoon progressed, the trees grew thinner and the landscape opened up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At about 2:40, I passed some sort of construction site with heavy equipment and pipes. Perhaps a new irrigation project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few minutes later, I passed an orchard, and in the distance I could see a cluster of half-hidden buildings. Was this the village?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it was the dusty Meseta farming village of Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, our destination for the day. I entered the village at about 2:50. Herve was running maybe half a kilometer behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s not much in this little village, and I found the Albergue of San Bartolo with absolutely no trouble. There are five of us here tonight:  the Hospitalera Rachel, Herve, me, and a German couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five of us had a lovely dinner together at the albergue. It’s Sunday, and nothing in the sleepy little town is open. Including the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date:<\/strong> 07 June 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Place:<\/strong> Calzadilla de los Hermanillos <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today started:<\/strong> Terradillos de los Templarios <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s Photos!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breakfast wasn’t scheduled to begin at the albergue until 7 AM, so Herve and I elected to skip it in favor of the next village. We were walking by 6:40.  The morning was cold and windy, and we were greeted by a cacophony of birds. After winding through the village, we found ourselves on the same white gravel road of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pilgrim-reports","category-via-lemovicensis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22530,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions\/22530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}