Astorga

Arrived early in Astorga and started out with a great breakfast of Spanish tortilla, fresh squeezed orange juice, bread, and cafe con leche at this little cafe. 4 Euros. 

Then on to our wonderful apartment to settle in. 

From there we decided to visit the Cathedral Museum and it was a treat!  Too many photos to post but here are a few. 

I found the exceptional quality of the vestments fascinating. 

The drops of blood on this Jesus are made of rubies. 

A beautiful madonna. 

Always check under the choir seats. You never know what you’ll find.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we went to the market and got groceries. I made myself some soup and salad for dinner.

The borochos kept me up much of the night. I think the last time I heard the drunks coming through the square was about 4 AM this morning  

Today we visit the Bishop’s Palace by Gaudi. 

Oh! So! Happy!

Paula and I just had the best dinner ever. It was a Menu del Dia at a place next-door to our hotel. 

Today we walked 15 km to hospital day Orbigo. The name of our hotel is El Paso Honroso. Paula made a joke that we went from San Antonio to El Paso today. 

Our hotel is modest at €55 but it is very clean and it has a bathtub! There’s a restaurant downstairs but we decided to walk a block away to a little place called the flamingo because they advertised a menu for €12  

It was a wise decision  This is where all of the street workers go to eat, and my gosh,  the food was incredible!

I started with a rice salad. I have never seen this before, but it was actually very good. Lots of vegetables mixed in with the rice and tuna on top.  

The second course was Pollo Asada. 

We had a choice of water or wine or coffee and for dessert we chose flan. This was not flan from the supermarket. This was homemade flan and it was so good!

I highly recommend both of this hotel and the restaurant next-door. There is a restaurant here in the hotel but when I went down there today, there were about 50 gray haired people waiting to eat so I took a chance and walked over to the Flamingo. I’m really happy that I did. Not only was it less expensive but the food was just excellent.  I think every road worker within 50 miles came in here to eat while we were there and that’s always a good sign  

The walk today was pretty and was also flat, but it was along roadway and so it was tiring to the feet. 

I think I forgot to mention that the dinner last night was really nice. For €13 we had several courses served family style.  

We got to know several of the pilgrims who were also staying there. I also highly recommend this Albergue called San Antonio de Padua.

We have not yet decided what we will do tomorrow. If it rains, we will probably take a bus. If the weather is good, we may walk. It’s about 15 km but I’m not willing to walk in the wind and rain with it being so close to time to pick up my group. 

Right now I’m full and happy. I’m going to let my food settle a bit and then I’m gonna get a nice hot bath.

Buen Camino!

Annie

Villar de Mazariffe

It was a beautiful 15 km day.  It started out chilly, but warmed up gradually as we walked, and there was no wind, thank God. We took a bus to La Virgin Del Camino and walked from there after stopping for breakfast at a small bar. 

We walked through wheat fields and stopped to listen to cuckoo birds.  

There don’t seem to be a lot of pilgrims coming through.   We were going to stay at Albergue Jesus but managed to get a private en-suite room at Albergue San Antonio de Padua.   This is a nice place and they serve a vegetarian dinner.

It is still chilly and Paula is trying to stay warm. She’s got her feet in her Jacket sleeves. 

She’s always doing something weird!  For lunch she put chocolate spread on her potato chips. 

I love the garden here. Especially the wisteria.

Lunch:

Saw this stork peeking over the top of this giant nest.

Vegetarian family style dinner tonight. We’ll see how that goes. I had pork chops last night so I’m sure I will live.  Hahaha! 

Tomorrow, Hospital de Órbigo 

Love,

Annie. 

Castille y Leon Day

As luck would have it, we are in Leon on a holiday so there are no food markets open and no China bazars open. However, I found a pharmacy to get some lotion for my face and hands. I don’t usually carry it, but the wind has just dried me out like a prune. Also found plenty of places serving coffee and 2d breakfast, but many restaurants will be closed for the evening.  

Paula is now enjoying a visit to the Gaudi museum. I found a place to get a battery pack from my telephone so I am able to charge it on the trail. I also found a pharmacy open to get some medicine for my allergies.

There are tons of pilgrims in town. I see them on every corner and every street. Some are moving at a great pace and others look injured.  

This morning on the forum, I read about a couple from Australia on their way to Madrid, who got stuck in Dubai for three days sleeping on the airport floor because of the floods. They are now in Madrid, but their packs are missing and they have no idea where they are. This is just another reason that I highly suggest people carry your pack on the plane and do not check it. 

I think at this point I’m going to retreat my hotel room, do my wash, and just have a quiet rest day. 

Here is a little more about the local holiday from Wikipedia

Castile and León Day (Spanish: Día de Castilla y León) is a holiday celebrated on 23 April in the autonomous community of Castile and León, a subdivision of Spain. The date is the anniversary of the Battle of Villalar, in which Castilian rebels called Comuneros were dealt a crushing defeat by the royalist forces of King Charles I in the Revolt of the Comuneros on 23 April 1521.

 

Allergies in Leon

Tra -LA!  It is Primavera! And everything is blooming along the Camino. If you have allergies, you better bring your allergy medication and a soft cloth to wipe your nose. Mine has been running like a sieve for several days.  The flipside is it’s absolutely beautiful with all the flowers that are blooming and the trees that are covered in blossoms  

This morning, Paula and I had breakfast at Hospitalera PAX. The cost was €15.  Though there was a lot of food, it wasn’t necessarily food that I might want for breakfast so you might want to think about what breakfast means to you. In my group, many of the rooms here in Leon come with breakfast. If they do not, you might want to check around town to see what else is available. Paula got breakfast yesterday for under four euros and she couldn’t eat it all.  I tried to post a video here of a quick reveal so you can see what a €15 breakfast includes - the app wouldn’t let me. Basically, it is yogurt, tortilla (what we might call it frittata,) a variety of sweet cookies, a very sweet custard pie, a variety of fruit, some cereal, a variety of toast, hot coffee, hot water, hot milk.  There are a variety of meats and cheeses, and freshly squeezed, orange juice, as well as bottled juice. A person could eat their fill If this type of food appeals to you. 

But if you just want something light and a cup of coffee, you can probably do better at a bar in town. 

Today is a rest day for me. Paula is going to go see the cathedral, but I’ve seen it many times so I’m gonna do a little shopping. I need to find some allergy medicine to begin with as well as some lotion for my skin. This freezing wind has sucked all the moisture out of my hands and lips.  I also need to do some laundry and repack my bags for our walk tomorrow  

Joe leaves for Spain tomorrow and I will hook up with him on the 28th in Pamplona. Just a few more days until our groups meet up and we start our Camino. 

I’m looking forward to walking the next few days and I’m hoping for good weather. So far, it has been clear but very cold and the wind was just cutting in Burgos. I’m ready for some sunshine and some windless days. 

We are seeing a lot of pilgrims everywhere we go. I’m surprised there are so many on the trail this early in the year.  And they are from everywhere! Not just the USA, but Germany, France, Italy, Korea, China -  just everywhere

OK, that’s it for now

Buen Camino!

Annie

Leon

This was a travel day that started out stressful and ended up perfect

We had to be out of our apartment by noon. Our train was not scheduled to leave Burgos until 3:45. It was cold and windy - bitterly so. It was too cold to walk and so we went ahead and booked a taxi to the train station, which is quite a way out of town  When we got to the train station, cafeteria was not open and it didn’t look like it had been functioning for some time . We were hungry.  The only food we could find were potato chips and snacks from a machine. So it was a rough morning having to wait three hours for the train with nothing to eat or drink  We did manage to get coffee from a machine  And then, to top things off, our train was about a half hour late  By the time we got to Leon, we were not only exhausted, we were hungry.  I couldn’t wait to dig into the restaurant, but upon checking in, we learned the restaurant had just closed for the day. Oh noooo!

I had upgraded to a room with a bathtub and the only one they had had four beds, so I’m in a room with four beds! But I do have a bathtub. HOORAY!

We dropped our bags in our rooms and started walking.  Everything was closed because it was Siesta. After a while, we found a restaurant that was open with a placard outside advertising meals

A waiter came out and explained some of the menu to us and invited us inside. I told Paula, “I’m eating here! I can’t wait any longer. I’m getting hangry!”

So in we went. Paula ordered a pitcher of Sangria and took another look at the menu. I was really hankering for a steak. They had a veal steak on the menu and that is what I ordered. 

I was not disappointed!  The waiter came out with my food and WOW! . It was served on a huge wooden cutting board and the biggest veal steak I’ve ever seen was sizzling at me!  Oh. My. Goodness!

I was so hungry that I dug in without taking a photo and so here is a photo of after I’ve eaten more than half of it. Sorry about that, but I was so hungry I couldn’t wait!  

Paula ordered the chicken skewers. There were two skewers just loaded with chicken and potatoes on the side. My meal came with a green salad. We finished up with cheesecake.  I was so happy!

I highly recommend this place! 

If you are ever in Leon, this is the place to eat!

100 stars!

And now for a hot bath and bed. 

It’s been a long day.

Love,

Annie

Last night’s dinner

Did I mention that we cooked last night?

We made a chicken and vegetable stirfry. I found frozen vegetables and I also found frozen chicken nuggets so we spent a little bit of time taking the breading off of the chicken nuggets and made a really nice stirfry.

We also found these snacks in the apartment and man are they good!

It was interesting learning how to use the induction stove. We had to go onto YouTube to find a video. It was worth it though.  Great dinner!

Candied Apples

Look what I found while out and about today. A little treat for Paula and I tonight.  Yum!

I really like this apartment we are in. It’s very comfortable.  Last night, we actually watched a show on Netflix on this humongous television they have in this apartment. It was funny thinking that I haven’t watched TV in a couple of weeks and I hadn’t really missed it    

Here are some photos of our apartment

Weird Sunday

Today started out weird. Paula and I tried to make coffee in the apartment, but we couldn’t figure out how to use the machine. So we went to the same place we had breakfast yesterday and that was pretty good. 

Then we went for a walk and ended up at the Museum of Evolution. We got free because we’re over 65 and it’s a good thing because we both felt kind of, “Meh.”

The homonid exposition was good but there were so many people and the rest was not as interesting as expected. 

I was overwhelmed by perfume and Paula wasn’t having a great time in there either so we left and went down walking along the riverside. I decided to part ways because I’m not feeling well from all of the perfumed people in the museum. 

We wanted to go to the market earlier, but it was closed so I’m having achamburger now to be sure that I get food for the day. In the past the markets were open on Sundays until the afternoon, but we could not find an open market today in Burgos, so it’s probably good idea to make sure you have food in your backpack on a Sunday.  

After my burger, I think I’ll just go to the apartment and hang out and rest. Try to get rid of this headache.  We’ve got most of the day tomorrow before we catch our train at 3:45 to Leon  

Holy heck, look at the size of the hamburger they just brought me!  I guess I better get started !

Desayuno

It was an adventure looking for breakfast this morning.  I finally hailed the man in the truck who told me the bar would open in five minutes so we waited and it was a good thing we did. We have a nice big breakfast to get us down the road.