Villavante

Mercedes cooked us up a big breakfast to send us off. They are a such a nice family. Their house/pension is an old farmhouse they gutted and rebuilt beautifully. It’s filled with old tools and things from Mercede’s childhood. A wooden sledge with stones cut into the bottom that she rode on, pulled by animals, to crush grain, and lots of other cool old stuff. The house is built over a canal that always runs water.

We walked through more and more hilly countryside and eventually, at the top of a long series of climbs, we came across a rest stop operated by volunteers. This rest stop was there when Dale walked the Camino in 2016, and one of the volunteers was the same. It was such a nice experience. They had a table full of fruits and juices, water, and snacks there for passing pilgrims.

Later, we came to a cross on the crest of the hill overlooking the city of Astorga. It was a long steep down grade, but I’m getting pretty good at protecting my knee going down hills.

Astorga has an impressive cathedral, but it was closed when we went through.En savoir plus