Day 16 - San Nicolàs to Mansilla de las Mulas

I had a great time last night. In the end there were just four of us at the lovely little place in San Nicolàs. The older American woman, me and a lovely young couple also from the States. Mark and Maria have been married for four years but they have only recently finished university. They have just moved to Arizona, got new jobs and then both taken a month off before they start work to walk the Camino (from Pamplona)
So, another early start (about 6 am) as I planned to do a long walk today. I left the Palencia region early this morning and am now in the region of Léon. I chose an alternative route today to walk alongside one of the longest sections of original Roman road in Europe. The only problem with Roman roads is that they are a bit straight!
About 20 miles straight; with a newly planted identical tree every 20 feet. I took lots of photos but they all look the same. I have just added up the mileage for today and it is 48.5 kms (just over 30 miles) my longest ever in one day.
Although this is day 16 of my blog I have just completed day 19 of my guide book, so I am 3 days ahead of schedule. I have now walked 289 miles! That is eleven marathons (Snickers?) in 16 days.
I need some new clothes as my shirts are falling apart due to my rucksack rubbing and my shorts are now too big. My Salomon walking shoes are doing great though.
Tomorrow I will be in Léon which is the biggest city that I encounter. I plan to see the sights, maybe get some new clothes and then visit La Virgen del Camino (if she is in!); that's the next town after Léon. I have just discovered that tomorrow starts the Festival of St Juan and Saturday is the day when they do the bull run (like in Pamplona) It would be good to see that but unless you want to join in it is difficult to get a good viewing position.
I don't really like staying in the big cities as it is a bit hectic and you have to share a room with 70 or more smelly pilgrims.
I managed to get onto a real computer today and have rewritten some of the code on my web page so I can now reply to your comments more easily so bring it on!

So here are today's photos (in no particular order as I have still not sussed that out.)
We have a chicken on a bell (chickens are very popular here in architecture; google "San Domingo Chicken") a sunrise, José and his wife (guess which one is José), a distance marker, a big yellow arrow, a Roman road and some wheat.
Also a very old, simple church where I arrived at the same time as the priest; he gave me a personal pilgrims blessing, a glass of water and wished me "buen camino, pelegrino"