Astorga

We have arrived in Astorga, Spain. ‘The Way’ to get here has more trees, hills, dairy cows and interesting Camino ‘art’ as we walked.
We did have several wardrobe changes. Jacket with hood, leggings and gloves to start, down to a long sleeved shirt, then we stopped to gear up for rain at a cute Oasis of an unexpected place to break. Shade trees, kittens running after each other. Later out on a huge table was fresh fruit, nuts and some simple baked goods. Skiing with water, squeeze your own juice etc. Great choices!
We put on our rain gear ( mine is a very trendy trash bag look) and headed out. Only to start stripping off the rain gear as soon as the rain abated. Keeping it handy just in case. The forecast was for more.
Just at the crest of a hill we came on a cross and in the distance Astorga! Astorga has incredible architecture and art . The Gaudi Palace is stunning! You will miss much of you don’t enlarge on the buildings and arches.
We had an amazing salad with great wine for a lunch and strolled a bit about town. Dinner we are told isn’t until 8pm here, so good thing we ate lunch. Of course after walking it’s not really a choice s much as a necessity.
Our day tomorrow is a 24km walk and I like my sleep, am 8pm dinner isn’t kind!!! Daily we are up at 6:30am, breakfast by 7am-ish and on the road.
Side note: just before checking in we ran into a lovely Australian pilgrim couple we hadn’t seen in days. Checking in we turned to see Martin from Holland who told us all about his wife, the family business and many fun stories just last evening! Last evening while laundry was hanging over our heads drying we also visited with Ian ( originally from UK, then Australia, then Canada then back to Australia). According to Ian his parents were trying to decide on the right weather and temperature as he puts it.
He and a buddy were off to meet up with Ian’s wife today in Astorga. In this much bigger city, who knows but we may see them today or Sophie, the 22yr old Danish maybe soon to be nursing student. We have met then seen her at several of the places we have stayed.
With several places in each village or surrounding villages it’s a lovely surprise to come across a pilgrim again that you have chatted with or had wine with at a previous Alburgue while waiting for laundry. Or supper.
Astorga is quite large. So to have run into several already is really fun. It’s 7pm here to your 10am
Hugs to allRead more