Sahagún to El Burgo day 19

I spent some time looking around Sahagún before I left, it was a relatively easy day with 20km or so to El Burgo Ranero. The extra blip is the fine Roman bridge, the Puente Canto over the Rio Cea. There was an impressive amount of fast flowing water probably the result of the dramatic  thunderstorm during the night. 
Thereafter the route is apparently known as The Copse of Charlemagne’s Lances where legend has it that the lances of his troops turned into saplings after they had been planted in the earth there, an ominous sign to the forthcoming battle with the Moors which would later litter the area with corpses.
There seemed a lot of walking alongside roads until I reached Calzada del Coto, my coffee stop. The area is famous for its leeks and in the garden of the café was this rather attractive metal sculpture, I especially liked the leeks. The way spit in two here and I was forced to take the less interesting route since the long Via Romana completely bypassed my end point for the day.
More road side walking which wasn’t quite so bad because most of the traffic was using the motorway which you could hear but not see. One chap described it as “walking in sister hood” with the road which reframed it quite effectively.
I met T for lunch in Bercianos, and then the two French brothers turned up, who I encounter at various points most days.
Even John Brierley, whose spiritual and travel guide that virtually every Pelegrino uses describes tomorrow’s stretch as monotonous. Again the alternative Via Romana is not an option. A-M has decided quite sensibly to walk half way on the route and then get a bus to León spending two nights there instead of one.
There is a canal to look forward to and Mansilla looks interesting.