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Published: August 15th 2012
We were walking again, still, in very cold weather and as we walked this day we were headed towards snow topped mountains and the winds blowing from there were seriously FREEZING ... I didnt really feel the cold while walking ... but as soon as the body stopped moving.. BBBRRRRR.... We walked past a memorial for someone who had died in 2005.......and a little later came upon a donativo stall with juices and fruit 'refreshment for Pilgrims' , including a home baked kind of meusli slice thing..... They seemed like hippy kind of guys running, there was a labyrinth of stones, and the bed/sleeping area of one of them was just under a blue tarpaulin.... We saw James and Angie again here and James felt the need for some sort of apology to Diane over SOMETHING he'd said about her hair previously.... Angie put him up to it I think :-) He was TRYING to master G'day - but it kept kind of sounding like GoodYE Maytes ...
We walked with them for a while, into Astorga and were introduced also to two other guys form US and it was a friendly chatty walk the rest of the way into
the city, though I remember limping and feet hurting quite a bit after doing 17km without a sit down.... we passed a cross on top of a hill - Mount Joy - Monte Gozo- that was a memorial for a Bishop from the 5th century who apparently fell to his knees in the spot after being banished from Astorga .... from the 5TH century....400 and something AD ...........the thought of people living so long ago .. I can hardly imagine it... wonder what the bishop did that was worthy of remembering his banishment for so long??
We walked in to the city and had Churros and Hot Chocolate while we were waiting for the clock figures ( a man and a woman) to strike......they DID strike - but as it was 1pm... it was a VERY short performance! We wandered around the market that was in Plaza mayor bought a few trinkets at a souvenier shop , then headed out of Astorga for Murias de Rechivaldo- another 5-6 km away ....when we reached there the Albergue we were wanting to stay at - a private one - was all booked out with bus trip pilgrims ... grrrr ... folk
who get off the bus at various spots on the way and walk for 5-10 km - stay in the 'nicer' Albergues to get the 'Albergue experience' . We learnt later that day it is ONLY priv Albs that will take bus folk... the municipal/parish ones do not .... it was ...... irritating ... we did find somewhere else to stay - though the guy warned us it had NO heating .. at all.... but hot water and plent of blankets.... so we stayed there the night . Diane had a long chat with him about Albergues/laws around etc ... after showering we went at about 5-30 to the local Bar Felix to stay warm..... had a few reds , used charades to describe which dish we wanted from the pilgrim menu.... then walked back to our unheated abode, and slept quite well - though my bed was bowed almost to a hammock kind of feel ! We discovered after we set off the next morning that if only we had walked another 2km to the next village there was a beautiful Alb with open fire and lovely woody warm surrounds..... the trouble is though after 23 km - at
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Looked like he was carrying a cross.......... but it was a guitar....the end of the day - another 2km feels like about 10....... we took lots of pics as we walked throughEl Ganso..... with many stone walls and buildings just fallen down- in the 12th century it had a hospital and monastery..... but now has a 'Cowboy Bar' - which was run by a really grumpy guy..... but the bonus of stopping there meant we met Bruce ( an Aussie- hence the name :-)) who was driving a campervan we had seen passing us a few times. His wife and her cousin were walking the Camino and he was the 'support crew' ... we had a good chat, in a familiar language, with a familiar accent..... I have never appreciated before travelling to Europe the ease that brings....
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Leandra
non-member comment
Hi Jacqui, i have been thinking of you a lot the past 24 hours with the winds, cold and rain and trying to imagine what it must have been like walking all day in those gusts. I really appreciated my bed last night, and right now i'm appreciating the building that i'm in! I have a book titled 'where-ever you go, there you are'. i bought it many years ago, when i began looking into meditation, can't remember the author right now, but i still have the book. Lots of love xxx