another "rest" day

our double room in ledigos turned into a 2 night stay becasue the same bug that invaded juan took up residence in my gut the following night. the details of that night are now hazy but a bottle of flat lemonade saw me right for that day.
after my recovery we walked from ledigos to calzado del coto which we made an easy day by taxying my bag with some things from juan's pack to the albergue in calzado del coto
a few words about both towns
we are now in what has been consistently referrred to in our guide book as flat, uninteresting terrain. words like unispiring, unspectacular are used a lot. one of our routes was described thus "carrion de los condes to calzadilla de la cueza goes for 12 km along the original route, the old roman road of via aquitana- dead straight with absolutely no shade. the slight hills afterwards look really exciting." or "you may feel totally alone and at a certain point you may even begin to doubt if you willl ever reach another village". or this mystifying remark "do not be put off by the endless wide open spaces which are some of the most powerful experiences along the way".
the book also tells us that the lack of stones in this area has meant that most of the homes in the area are made of mud. we can expect to see less and less stone work in the houses. juan has taken to photographing a lot of mud walls.
lodigos' mud walls were its prominent feature. my suggestion for the town of lodigos is that they hold a mud wall making competition annually. there could be a mud wall queen. mud cake competitions could be run. it could really turn the fortunes of that town around
as for calzada del coto why any guide book would have that place as a destination, walking as we did through sahagun which offered no less than 3 modern albergues and a host of benedictine history with bercianos del real camino on the other side which at least had 2 restaurants and a choice of albergues.
no, we stayed in calzada del coto which must qualify as one of spain's most frontier towns. our accomodation was in a cement hut. bitterly cold. when the guide book described it as having no comforts they were at least truthful.
we paid our donation at the bar xanadu. i am trying to remember the meaning for xanadu. i think it is something like fantasy. if your fantasy is of dying from lung cancer as a result of passive smoking then bar xanadu in calzada del coto is the place for you. they did have a good fire there so it was preferable to whiling away our time there than in the cement hut across the road. words fail to describe the forsakeness of this town.
by contrast we are in reliegos tonight and our albergue is everything you could want. clean, organised, working internet, good hot showers, restful beds and friendly. all for the princely sum of 5 euros
the camino continues to surprise