Chuck's News: June 1, 2023 - Day 32 - to Astorga - 13.9 miles - +761’

It is surprising the amount of sleep one gets crammed two to a twin bed, yet we were up at 5:15am. The Japanese woman who had just started in Leòn yesterday was in the adjoining kitchen coughing continuously as if tuberculosis was making a comeback. Sally and I skipped through the kitchen holding our breaths and retreated to the outside patio to eat our breakfast of bread and cream cheese. There we still a few sleepers when we left the place at 6:10am. It was pleasantly brisk outside, but not so cold a fleece was needed, about 51° and no wind.

The route again parallels the highway, about 25’ centerline to centerline. There is quite a bit of traffic this morning. It makes the sunrise walk really annoying. We hav 4 miles of this and after two Sally is getting motion sick and takes some Dramamine to quell the symptoms. Finally, we leave the road about a mile before Hospital de Orbigo and get a little peace and quiet.

Hospital de Orbigo is an old Roman town. To cross the river, they built a super long stone bridge that still exists, although it has been repaired over the centuries. See the photos below. It is impressive. They have their annual “Cheese Days” celebration, although theirs should be called “Knight’s Day”. It is this weekend and I’m sorry we will miss it. The town was decked out in medieval banners, complete with a jousting arena with spectator stands.

We stopped for a pop and snack at the restaurant bordering the floodplain the bridge crosses right where end of the bridge is. Seated outside on the deck we were able to great everyone we knew as they crossed the bridge.

On the far side of town the trail splits, the blue line on FarOut goes back to the highway, the redline curves up into the hills a bit and leaves the highway. The redline was about 7 miles. The blue about 6. We chose the red line. Becky, to keep her distances shortened to please her aching shin splints a bit chose the blue line.

We were about 200 yards up the redline, having just parted with Becky when a young girl of 23 came up behind us and asked if we Chuck and Sally. Her name was Lydia and she was thinking of doing the PCT and wanted to mine our experiences to help her get started. She was a very animated person who loved to talk excitedly and laugh a lot. She was fun the first 20 minutes. By the 3rd hour my ears were bleeding. We stopped to eat. She stopped. We stopped to rest. She stopped. It wasn’t until her boyfriend caught up that she finally left. It wasn’t that she was rude or anything like that. She was just loud and had diarrhea of the mouth. We couldn’t think while she was near.

About four miles from Astorga lies a house just off the trail to the left. The man that lives there has made a way station of sorts where he has a crude knee high table about 6 feet in diameter loaded with dressy fruit which he constantly replenishes as pilgrims pass by. Oranges, nectarines, watermelon to name a few. Another table is set with breads and jams and honey. There is no charge, just a sign that says “donativo”. From the look of the

Pile of bills and coins he either seeds his pot very well or makes a good collection ion from the pilgrims. We had two pieces of watermelon and a nectarine and left €3.

We dropped off the plateau into the town below, across the floodplain and to the dreaded railway crossing. It is 20’ from one side of the tracks to the other. To facilitate a safe crossing the rail company built a elevated walkway over the tracks. To make it possible for bikes to use the walkway they made the ramps switchback up and then down the other side. This made the extended distance about half a mile to cover the twenty feet across the tracks. Affective, but a lot of walking to accomplish a little bit of distance.

Astorga sits on the hill above the floodplain. This means a climb up into the town. We found our hostel. Becky was already there and yelled the door code down to us so we could enter.

After settling in and resting we headed to the Gaudí Palace to tour it. We had wanted to see it last time but had missed its open hours. This time we were in the open zone and got to see its interior. Amazing.

We wandered through town, had an amazing eclair from a pastry shop and then began searching out dinner. It was siesta time, so most restaurants were closed and those that were open were only serving drinks and no food. We found a restaurant on the main square that was open and found a small table. We had tried to share a meal a few night ago, but she wouldn’t have it and we ended paying €24 for a meal we didn’t want or need. Tonight we tried a. New approach. We told the waiter that i was going to eat and Sally was only going to have a Coke. It took about three explanations for him to understand that only I wanted a meal and that Sally would only have something to drink. When the meal came we both ate off the plate. Other than not being a very good meal, it worked out fine.

We had texted Melissa about where we were. She had returned to her albergue. At the bottom of the hill, but she and Rose came back up to find us at the restaurant and have a drink with us. Becky also arrived and we enjoyed an hour of their company before heading back to our room for the night.

The weather was persecuted to be thunderstorms all late afternoon and evening. The sky looked ominous and rumbled a lot with a few sprinkles, but it never really rained. Astorga is a very appealing town and we enjoyed seeing it again.

The Way and the highway at sunrise