Astorga sightseeing day

It was so relaxing waking up and not having to pack and prepare feet for walking. We started with a “Cafe solo longo”, served with a Churro and toast!

There are 2 major sites to visit so we did 1 before lunch and 1 after.

The first was the palace designed by Gaudi as the residence for the bishop of Astorga, and is now a museum. It is quite unique in this area. It is 4 stories and the main design feature is a central pillar in each room with arched ceilings and circular side rooms which is visually very attractive. The chapel was wonderful, with the curves. We will let the pictures tell the rest.

We then walked on the old city wall and went to mass at the cathedral at 12. We are getting quite used to mass in Spanish! The priest stopped to greet us and gave us a spontaneous private blessing on his way to his next mass.

We went to a very local bar / restaurant for tapas lunch, definitely the only English speakers around and then went to properly tour the Cathedral. The tour included visits to the museum where there were displays of art, … and interesting historical events. There was also a virtual reality tour which was different. It was like we were the drone.
Inside the cathedral there were about 10 chapels, each with their own history and so many incredible pieces of art, sculptures and carvings. More evidence of the incredible devotion to Our Lady.
After the cathedral we tasted as many of the local delicacies as we could find! A dark chocolate ice cream, dark chocolate with nuts, a Montacardo (a really overrated dry piece of cake) and some good old Spanish rooibos tea.
We watched the bell chime in the main square, look at the girl and boy arms clanging the bells on the attached video.
I think you get the picture of the day - eat, site visit, eat, site visit, eat, eat, drink, …
In the evening we met up with other pilgrims for a drink and local Maragato cuisine, speciality of various meats. There is a small local mountainous culture “Maragato” and they live off the game and trout in the hills. We’re not totally sure what we ate but mountain food sounds about right!Baca lagi