Day 26: To Santa Catalina de Somoza

After my (too) long day of walking yesterday, I decided on a nice easy less than 8-mile trek to the little village of Santa Catalina de Somoza for today. It should have been a pretty effortless trek, but my left leg shin started hurting more and again my right shin started having sympathy pains. Yep, I overdid it yesterday, so today I’m giving my body a break.
Due to the short day, I slept in, then went to touch on some of the highlights of Astorga. The Cathedral is spectacular. One nice thing they did on the tour is one rooms had 3dVR headsets you could put on and view portions of the Cathedral that are normally not accessible. It was very well done and quite cool. Next door to the Cathedral is the Gaudi Museum or Bishop’s palace so I took the tour there too.
After that, I headed back to the hotel to pick up my backpack and hiking poles to continue my journey. While there, I met the proprietor, Juan. His family has been living in that home/hotel for 11 generations. It’s a wonderful hotel and not an albergue, but this Peregrino needed a bit more comfort to make my feet and I feel better before the trek tomorrow. (Spoiler alert, there are mountains ahead…)
I stopped in the village of Murias de Rechivaldo for lunch. Lunch was good but I wish the bar across the street that is owned by some Italians had been open. I’m not sure about their food but I liked their decor outside with colorful flowers filling discarded boots. Then on to my Hostal in the cute but very small village of Santa Catalina to rest my feet.Read more