Day 22 - San Martin del Camino to Astorga

The best news for today is we were up to full complement of six pilgrims!!  The plan was that Martin and Mitch would aim for half way and see how things were before deciding whether to walk the whole stage or not.  

As we had done 4.5km of the stage in the book yesterday, we had 23.5km to go.  We left the lovely Albergue La Huella at 6.30am and set off.


The first stop of Hospital de Orbigo was at 6.5km and perfect distance before breakfast.


The route started along the main road once again but just before Hospital de Obrigo it headed away from the road which was a relief for us all. The walk into HdO was just beautiful across a great bridge.




Immediately as we crossed the bridge there was a restaurant with an outside terrace looking over the bridge, the perfect spot for breakfast.





We walked on through Villares de Orbigo...


And then to Santibanez de Valdeiglesias where it was time for a drink in a great spot. A new bar, soon to be Albergue, where the hospitalero was just fabulous!


From there it was an 8km stretch to San Justo de la Vega which is on the outskirts of Astorga, but before we reached there we stopped a fab Donativo where we had drinks and a few snacks and then passed the Cruceiro Toribio. Very impressive with Astorga in the back ground.







As we walked into San Justo de la Vega we came across a fabulous sculpture of a pilgrim drinking. It was by a water fountain and when you pressed the water fountain at the same time the water poured into his mouth! It was just fantastic!



Reachinn Astorga involves crossing an over complicated bridge, in that it is probably 0.5km of slopes up and down and frankly after a long day it is the last thing you need!!


After that it wasn't too far to the apartment. Once again we had been lucky with accommodation, so beers drunk from the fridge in the flat, showers and washing done. We headed out to visit the Cathedral and have dinner.



Gaudi's Palace next door to the Cathedral...


En route home from dinner, Fi got a great picture of the sunset behind the cathedral...


Today's route...





Comments

  1. Once again beautiful photos. Take care all of you Gx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a great day! Happy to see everyone is walking again😊 Astorga looks amazing! ♥️

    ReplyDelete

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