Today we walked only 6 or 7 miles on the trail, but then wandered around town for another couple of miles. We left Astorga about 8 this morning. The route was downhill initially through the city outskirts...all on sidewalks. We passed several groups of local joggers breathing hard, coming up at us. A few had enough breath to wish us a Buen Camino.
First rest was at a restored medievel pilgrim hostel with a pretty chapel. Lots of pilgrims had already signed in ahead of us...from Holland, Austria, France, Germany, Australia, Bolivia... The trail became a gravel path all the rest of the way.
Our second stop was in a little Maragata village typical of the region. No one seems quite sure of the history of the Maragata, but they are the dominant culture in this area...their special food, dress, architecture dating to before medieval times.
We stopped at a bar for cafe-leche, and three delightful foods, new to us...a tortilla espanol...sort of a potato omelet, pan con tomates..bread with tomatoes, olive oil, and sea salt, and a sweet thing with eggs, flour, and honey...fried!
The Camino was uphill from there to here, Santa Catalina de Samosa.We have a nice albergue/inn. We took pictures which we will post when we have a computer that is not euro fed, checked email, posted to the blog, and re-hydrated on beer and water.
Only 50 people live here. There are more pilgrims than residents.
The local police from Astorga showed up and took photos of all of us pilgrims...or maybe of the tables where we sat in the road.
Mountains loom for tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment