Day 2.2/30: April 29: Sahagún to Bercianos del Real Camino

 Bercianos del Real Camino, Spain

April 29,2017
Berciano del Camino Real
Hostal Rivero
11.05km, 15700 steps, 62m gain, 2:29 hr

Why would they lie?

The first failure in my attempt to piece the Camino planning puzzle together was not buying advance train tickets. I assumed train tickets would be available... there are always unreserved train seats available in Switzerland. We simply hop on and hop off whenever we want, like a giant hop-on hop-off bus tour: no problem. It turns out that in Spain: big problem. Trains here sell out, and this is a popular 4-day holiday weekend. From my research we knew which train we wanted; so, we went directly to the automatic machine. When we punched in Sahagún as our destination: there was nothing available until late afternoon, but we needed to arrive earlier than the afternoon so that we could walk to our first destination!

We went to the counter to ask about the earlier train that we had planned on taking- "full". We walked away dejected and depressed. The only available train arrived too late for us to walk to our first destination. We discussed options and Lisa came up with a plan: we could take the train to León and then take a bus or taxi back to Sahagún. We approached the second information counter and we were told that all the early trains to León were also full. We asked again for any connections to Sahagún- "no, everything is full". But, this time we knew he was lying. We had done some research, and we knew that there WERE tickets available for León in an hour, with a change in Palencia. So, we by-passed the uninformed or dishonest Information Desk assistants and bought the tickets from the machine, and hoped for the best. On a lark, while on the train to Palencia, I used my phone to check for any Palencia to Sahagún tickets and was able to immediately buy them on line with my phone. The train arrived earlier than our original plan. Okay, I still can't figure it out: why would they lie?

Sahagún is exactly as I left it a year ago. We stopped by the local Pilgrim store and arranged to have our packs taken to our first destination by taxi, and we started walking.

The first day was a pleasant, easy walk to Bercianos Del Real Camino. The bags had arrived and the rooms were reasonable. Although Lisa's first dinner in a pilgrim establishment was a bit of a shock for her... I think it was the massive piles off French fries; maybe the loud dinner conversations involving singles at other tables spread around the restaurant, forcing pilgrims to yell at each other across the room. More likely it was the pilgrim attire: all the clothes were dirty and most smelled of the Camino (not a good smell). Some were wearing what appeared to be their signature hiking costume that made them recognizable from afar on the trail. The guy from Bermuda was predictably wearing shorts, even though it was cold.