Day 16, September 16, Leon to Rabanal del Camino– late post

The following morning, we woke up early to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Parador. This was the only luxurious breakfast we were to have on this camino and we intended to savor every morsel. Of course in the dining room was a motley crew of pilgrims and tourists alike. From sight alone you can differentiate the pilgrims from the tourists based solely on the way they are dressed.  


After breakfast, we went outside to enjoy the morning. Out of habit, we already packed prior to breakfast so we had a lot of time to spare. Our train to Astorga wasn't leaving til midday and we didn't want to spend hours waiting at the train station. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was so unlike the previous day when the skies were overcast there was a continuous light drizzle that was enough to dampen anyone's touristy mood. We sat in one of the benches in front of the Parador entrance and waved at some of the familiar pilgrims starting their walk. 



One of the more interesting pilgrims we saw was this group of merry men. You can feel their excitement as they posed in front of the cross at the Parador. There was much laughter, cajoling and teasing and their mood was quite infectious. I noticed that they were taking turns holding their various cameras for groups shots so I decided to approach them and ask if they wanted me to take their photo. Almost at the same time, they all whipped out their cameras in an almost comical way. I wasn't able to stop the laugh that came out of me at that. So, unable to stop from smiling, I obligingly took their photos from various cameras that were handed to me. We later learned that this was a group of priests from different countries. I can't remember which order though. And the reason for their excitement was that it was the first day of their camino. Anyway, after a short chat where we learned that one of the priests is from Bicol, we shook hands with everybody and sent them on their way with a "Buen Camino!" It was already mid morning and they had quite a ways to go.

After that episode, we went back to our room, gathered our belongings and checked out. The train station was only about a 15-minute walk but we wanted to be there early to look for our platform. Having run across several familar pilgrims, we learned that a lot of pilgrims skipped the walk yesterday due to bad weather and a lot of them were catching up today through train. Yesterday, as we were checking in to the Parador, we also ran into Stacey and Laurie again, sisters walking together whom we first met in Carrion de los Condes. They were the ones who told us where to inquire about the bus tickets to Leon. They were in the process of re-visiting their itinerary due to some sustained injury so we shared our itinerary with them and they decided to do the same thing, We were on the same train from Leon to Astorga and from there shared a cab from Astorga to Rabanal.