Astorga

Today, we crossed a medieval bridge in the town of Hospital de Orbigo. Alan was ecstatic to hear the bridge was the site of a joust tournament in 1434 that lasted a month in which Suero de Quiñones and his best friends challenged any knight who tried to cross the bridge. The place looks like knights could run out at any time...pretty cool!

We have changed landscapes now, and we actually got to climb up and down some hills that had trees 🌳 🌳on them...woohoo! We also went through a few more towns along our route today. In the 2nd town we went through, an older man was handing out fresh watermelon. He gave me some, but when Alan walked over, he shook his head and made some hand gestures that made it very clear he was only giving it out to women 😂😂

We also walked by a spot on top of our last hill where a man named David had set up comfortable spots to rest. He had nectarines, bananas, watermelon, oranges all laid out for everyone going by. He also had orange juice, yoghurts, quinoa, bread, and about a zillion other things for people to take/use/eat/drink...only asked for a donation. He made sure he had items different cultures would appreciate - a girl from Australia was so excited to see the bread and the vegemite and the Koreans couldn’t believe he had rice and some sort of Asian sauce. He even had a bowl of hard boiled eggs! SO KIND!!!

We ended our day of walking in Astorga. I was bummed the Chocolate Museum was closed by the time we got into town, but I toured the magnificent cathedral and admired the outside of the bishop’s palace (designed by Antoni Gaudi) while Alan spent some time resting...maybe the medieval jousting history excitement wore him out (or maybe it’s because we have been doing more than a 1/2 marathon every day. 🙂

Tonight we visited with Paku who we might not see again. What a lovely man to have been around. We are hoping to run into him later down the road.

Tomorrow, we head to Foncebadón...26 kilometers. I have my first blister now, so we will see how it feels after tomorrow 😳😬. We have walked 334 miles so far...only 166 to go!Read more