Walked today: 8.5 mi Camino2023: 193mi
After a reasonably good night’s sleep that ended at 4:00 a.m., we were sitting at the bus station at 5:15. The rest of León was still sleeping based on the absence of residential lights, moving vehicles (less than 10, including scooters) and people (including no pilgrims) along our 20 minute walk to the bus station.
At 5:52 our bus arrived, we boarded at 5:54 and at 6:00, our 6:00 bus pulled out of the station. The driver never shut off his engine.
We arrived at Hospital de Orbigo at 6:35, got our packs from the luggage compartment and walked across the highway to a hotel/gas station/restaurant at Hospital del Orbigo.
Only the gas station was open but the attendant said the restaurant would open at 7:00. So we waited until 7:00 and miraculously the lights went on and the door was opened at 7:00! We spent the next half hour having breakfast and then were on our way to Astorga.
Taking the bus this morning allowed us to skip about 30 miles of mostly industrial and walking-along-the-road Camino. This also cut out about 4 days of greater than 8 miles walking that were not that interesting, were sections we had previously walked multiple times and most importantly, let us still make progress toward Santiago to arrive by the end of August.
When we decided to walk Camino2023, our previously planned trips before and after allocated only 51 days to walk from SJPDP to Santiago. By skipping selected sections like today, we should be able to get to Santiago on schedule.
As we began walking, it was only first light, but headlamps were not required.
We stopped in San Justo … at Hostal Juli, familiar from our previous stays in 2015 & 2017, for some OJ and to get a break from the sun. The combination of the 4am start, the 8 plus mile walk and the heat had taken its toll and we decided we’d had enough. A bus would be along in another hour, a taxi could pick us up in 5 minutes. Taxi was 9€, bus was 4€. It wasn’t necessary to take a vote.
Our taxi dropped us off a few steps from our hotel and we checked at the desk for availability of our room. As expected, we’d need to wait another 90 minutes. It was noon and so we went ahead and checked in, then left to find some food, as eateries were closing already and all would be shut down by 1:00 until 7-8pm!
We returned to our hotel and got into our room at 1:30 and crashed for the rest of the afternoon. Nice room, plenty of space for our stuff, comfortable beds and chairs, good shower, amenities and the best view of a very busy plaza in Astorga.
Jimandi 