Villadangos del Paramo to Astorga

Definitely an interesting 24 hours! :-)  First off my sleep was not the greatest,  I managed to snag a bed between those that could absolutely snore the BEST!  Full concert at 1:36am!  I was awake for good at 5:45 so thought I would quietly get up and have a coffee. By the time I got out of my blankets the dorm was moving. Still dark once I am ready, my flashlights completely udderly suck, therefore I am stuck until there is more light!  A lot of the pilgrims had gone by now so I said "screw it" and left. I had not even gone a block when this woman not too far in front of me turned around and asked me if this was the right way. I had checked it out yesterday and knew that the arrows veered right so said" nope this way". She then joined me and amazingly enough turned on a flashlight! :-) Thank you very much!!!!! :-)  We walked 5km in what seemed like no time! Lots of stories, laughs and great energy! Nancy from San Fransico was a good start to the day!

Caught up with Sandra at cafe, had the mandatory cafe leche and got my crendentials stamped. Met Pablo from Argentinia via Barcelona who demonstrated his contraption for pulling a cart with a chest strap which carried his pack! Saw the London folks and a few others and then we were off. We headed to the town of  Hospital de Orbigo with the goal of making it to Astorga.

The path took us along the highway for the most part. Lots of irrigation canals and a crazy amount of rose hips. Everywhere I looked more orange! Winter is coming! :-) We reached the town by about 10:30ish. As we approached the centre of town we came across a medieval bridge which was mind boggling,  We all had to stop because there was another bike race coming across the bridge! The story of the bridge is pretty interesting.... Apparently in the 1400's there was a knight who was upset cause his lady rejected him, so he put an iron collar around his neck as a sign that he was still shackled to her. He vowed to keep the collar on until he had broken 300 lances in fights on the bridge with the best knights in Europe. The tournament took place, he eventually reached his 300-lance target. Taking off his collar he journeyed to Santiago with his lady's jewelled bracelet. Apparently, the bracelet now encircles the neck of the statue of Santiago in th Cathedral.  Anyway, I took a bunch of photos as it was pretty darn cool and I will look for that bracelet in the cathedral!

We checked out the church,  figured out the bus direction and started walking. After a bit I noticed an open door with "Centro de Tourismo". Well it is Sunday pretty much everything is closed so we went in. :-) It was apparent that it was a boutique kind of hotel/b&b once we were inside. Very nice, lots of character and a  lovely courtyard. A lady came and greeted us and said we could look around. Gave us postcard type flyers, let us walk through and check out the backyard.  Sandra took some photos and after we thanked her she washed and packaged up some plums for us!  How nice was that!

Up the street around the corner, found the bus stop with another pilgrim. He was from Barcelona, had hurt his knee and after two rest days was off to join his friends in Astorga- so we got on the right bus! Another good connection!

Astorga is very pretty! Lots of stone, old walls, amazingly huge cathedral,  a Bishop's palace and lovely small streets. We found the tourism office and got the directions to the albergue.8€ for a bed in a room with 10 beds, showers are reasonable, kitchen works - perfect! I dump my gear, we track down Sandra's and then we set off exploring! One strange thing with the albergue is that on our balcony is a knapsack and hiking stick zap strapped to the railing. Sandra does eventually ask about it, and a pilgrim apparently gave his pack to the albergue as a thank you for helping him through 7 sick days! So they use it as street advertising - strange but true!  It is  now 1ish, everything shuts down at 2 and I am hungry! We find a place that makes burgers! Yippee! Beer, burger and spicy potatoes. Almost heaven! :-)

After a snooze and a cup of tea we are off to see the Pilgrim's Museum, however soon find out that all of the cultural sights are closed until Tuesday! We wander and find  a cafe where men are playing dominos and chess. They let me take their picture with lots of laughter and then we wander on. We found a table in the sun with a glass of wine and then headed back to the albergue. Cup of soup for dinner and then bed!