Amr's birthday! - now at Astorga

Today we left at 8 am as usual at the moment...the sun rises tomorrow at 8.20 so our departure time may get later as we don’t like walking in the dark. It was chilly and we had jackets for the first hour or so...a very pleasant 18 km walk, we chose the slightly longer option which went across fields rather than a path beside the road. We are now definitely into the rolling hills leading to the mountains which we cross in the next couple of days...I think they are the Montes de León. But though we climb, I think it is fairly gradual, and we are already at quite a high altitude (800metres) and eventually rise to 1500 in 2 days. The whole Maseta is a plateau really.

The hardest part of today’s walk was arriving...we had seen the city from the distance, and it felt like an ever increasing distance as we walked towards it...and when we finally really did get near we had to enter via a really steep path up through the city walls...but once here all was well, it is a really beautiful city. - walled and contained...with the usual sprawl outside. And of course it has a huge cathedral, and the famous Gaudi palace, which is now a museum and is directly outside our hotel room window. Lovely hotel, flags and perfect room. There is a chocolate factory here, but closed before we could visit - so we just bought some chocolate! There are many local pastries, and the chocolate is a big feature too. We think chocolate came from the Basque areas, which were famous for early making of chocolate, and we aren’t very far away from there.

Anyway, after the washing ritual we went to the main plaza and had a yum celebratory birthday lunch of salad, chiperones a la plancha and beer!! To keep us going till dinner at 8 pm. This afternoon we did visit the cathedral again, but mainly relaxed. Many of our Camino family here and we have run into some as we wandered. Last night had great dinner with our Canadian friends, Brigitte and Janette (different from the Canadian sisters!) and Jessica who is from Boston and who we have known for quite a while now too. About half a dozen of us arrive in Santiago on the same day (October 15) and we plan to have a celebration together! All good! Off to dinner soon.Read more