Left the Albergue Casa Verde about 0545 and headed towards Astorga. We’re all stoked that we will finally be leaving the road route and getting on trails and yes, I’m even happy to see the hills. A bit over 25k today.
First town of any size is Hospital de Orbigo which is really cool and has legend that says a Templar Knight challenged other Knights to joust to show his devotion. After successfully defending the bridge, he continued on to Santiago. It’s said the the Man of La Mancha is based upon some of this tale.
Hospital de Orbigo
Walked ahead while one the road. Walked with Ann for a while and with Madison, I find the young people to be very fun to walk/talk with. Very smart, very optimistic and yes, a bit naive but we all at their age. I don’t mean that as a negative it’s a phase that we all went through and it’s kind of refreshing.
We all caught up at a pop up place run by a modern day hippie, fresh fruit, juice and water, all donativo. We enjoyed the shade and the whole vibe, set us up for the finish.
Like every other city, entry into Astorga sucked. Hot, long, concrete, railroad tracks and this one included a nice climb into town. I was walking with Dawn and Nallie, Dawn is a real trooper but when she’s done, she’s done. As we walked into town searching for our hotel La Peseta, Dawn told Nallie, “I’m hot and I’m tired and you must find me my hotel!” Fortunately, it was directly in front of us.
Astorga, in the background, is still a long way!
Astorga though is a charming city that despite what it looked like from afar, is quite compact. We’ll explore tomorrow because we’re pretty whipped and desperately in need of a beer.
Nallie got got checked in first so he had the first beer followed quickly by the rest of us. The hotel is directly across from the Spa, looking forward to that.
Stayed out late for us, all of 2200 but it was good to spend what may be our last evening with Dawn & Nallie, Nigel & Bernie and the A&M kids. Because we took tomorrow off, everyone in now a day ahead of us and it will be hard to make that up. Possibly see D&N in Santiago if they stay anther day.