Wall murals are a frequent occurrence along the Camino and a really interesting way to celebrate the history or humanity or anything characteristic of a community.side view of the Catedral de Astorga, built in 1394 on the site of a mosque.The Episcopal Palace, one of only 3 buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi outside of Catalonia. Originally intended as a bishop’s residence it currently is a museum of religious art, dedicated to the Way of Santiago.the front of the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga.a more modern church we passed on our way out of Astorga
Right after walking past the church, our pilgrim friends from Australia, last seen 5 days ago, walked past us and said in passing they were walking 38km today! We wished them “Buen Camino”. We’re thankfully doing only 10km.
After walking on sidewalks through and nearly a mile after Astorga, we’re crossing a autovia here, still on pavement/sidewalk.We finally left the pavement onto a gravel path and shortly entered the outskirts of a Maragatos village. Just finishing breakfast at “Bar Cris” in the Maragato village of Murias de Rechivaldo.
The Maragatos are an ethnic group of about 4,000 people who are believed to be the last Moorish people in Spain. They were descended from the Berbers of North Africa who crossed into the Iberian peninsula with the first Moorish incursions in the early eighth century. They were first recorded in this area in the 10th century. They used mules to transport fish to Madrid and ferry the Spanish monarch’s gold from place to place. In the 1830s, one British traveller, Richard Ford, compared their insularity to that of the Jews and the gypsies. Like the Jews, they are renowned as traders and businessmen and their success has historically prompted jealousy.
back on the gravel path to Santa Catalina de Somozabeing passed by a family of 5 from South Korea. We first met them in Belorado and have been “hopscotching” with them since.great shot at entrance of Santa Catalina de Somoza, courtesy of our South Korean pilgrim friendsour residence on the Camino for today in Santa Catalina de Somoza: Via Avisour room and courtyard for Via AvisThe Salon, common area for guests with comfortable seating and views of nearby valley and mountains.just off the reception area, a common seating area for guests and a still operative wood oven for warmth. A buffet breakfast is a special offering for guests.Lunch/dinner is not available at Via Avis, so we walked to a nearby albergue where we have stayed twice and eaten frequently for our main meal: Eggs, bacon, salad, olives, wine and fresh bread.
Via Avis was opened 6 years ago by a couple: Daina, from Lithuania and Carlos, from Spain. They converted the ruins of a very historic house into an extraordinary B&B located in what is otherwise a struggling Maragato village of 90 inhabitants.
According to oral traditions, the original town was abandoned and likely destroyed due to an epidemic many years ago, with the surviving residents returning to rebuild it from the ground up. The house was originally built by professional stonemasons for an unknown but likely important person.
There is an inscription over the original door, dated 1776, proclaiming that the inhabitants were Christians, to avoid persecution or being expelled as were Muslim or Jews of that era.
The house was last occupied in the 19th century by the president of the local town council. Also, according to local tradition, when Napoleon over ran Astorga and subsequently occupied the town in the 19th century, he seized the house and used it as a temporary troops headquarters.
Totally fascinated but exhausted from all the historical research, Jim decided to end his blogging for the day.
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.
first activity at the bus station at 5:20… bus unloading/reloading then departing
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.
just after our breakfast stop…walking on the shoulder as we left Hospital de Orbigo. Our route along the highway is two miles shorter than the traditional Camino route and offers a rest stop at the halfway point whereas the traditional route has no services for the entire walk into San Justo de la Vega. Approximately 10 miles via N-120 to Astorga. The sun was brilliant at sunrise, predicting a quickly warming morning walk.looking back at the source of the orange tint on everything before usafter about a mile, we got a break from walking on the road shoulder this is clearly a path less traveledthe middle 4 miles of our walk was on a frontage road, that gave us more breathing room from the traffic and also offered a rest stop at a gas station/bar at the half way point.a mile of so before reaching San Justo del la Vega, the now gravel path took a turn away from the highway.Crucero de Santo Toribio is named for the 5th-century bishop of Astorga who was said to have fallen to his knees at this spot when he was banished from his beloved city.walking down into San Justo de la Vega, Astorga in the distance
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!
Getting an early lunch at Cubasol, before it closes at 1:00. We had good food here in 2022. Today: A collection of tapas and raciones of tempura shrimp and calamari and veal stew… something different for a main meal… delicious and filling.
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.
the view of Astorga city hall from our room balconyclose-up of the bell ringers… reminiscent of similar scenes in Bern, Switzerland and elsewhere.The bell ringers in action,
We slept in this morning until 7:00… then decided to do a test walk from our hotel to the bus station to make sure we knew the way. It took us nearly 3 minutes to make a wrong turn and two more minutes to realize we were lost. But we quickly retraced our steps and got back on track. Better to get off track on a test run in daylight than for real, tomorrow morning at 5:00 am in the dark!
It took us 18 minutes to make the walk, so we’ll plan on 30 tomorrow morning, We got breakfast at Cafeteria Duma then returned to our hotel, stopped at an ATM on the way to recharge our supply of Euros.
Breakfast at Duna’s on the sidewalk, as all tables inside were taken at 8:45.leaving for the return trip to our hotel
Jim took a brief walk to take a few photos of the Catedral and the avenue leading to it from downtown León.
The gothic León Catedralanother viewcloser look at West Entrance and the White VirginAvenue between the Catedral and downtown
Our hotel is actually on the Camino and a few steps from ruins of the old city fortifications that surround much of the older part of the city,
Entrance to our hotel. Each studio apartment is named for a different city. Ours was called “Estocolmo”, Spanish for Stockholm. The apartment next to us was called Oslo.Our hotel, “Lodging Cities- Barahona 7”, on the far right and an opening/old gateway of the city wall is straight ahead behind the green Pharmacy sign.the old city wallmore of the remaining city wall and fortifications to the right more wall and fortifications to the left
Our credentials do not have enough space for all the stamps we will collect by the time we reach Santiago. This is because we spend twice as long to walk the Camino Frances as most pilgrims (50+ days vs 31). And we must have enough spaces for two stamps per day for the final 100 km of the Camino into Santiago. We realized this before leaving home and purchased a second credential to hold all the stamps. To make it all official, so we qualify for the compostela at the end, we visited the Benedictinas Santa María de Carbajal Albergue, which is authorized to officialize our second credentials .
Jim’s original credential initiated in SJPDP.Jim’s second credential issued today in León with additional spaces for all the stamps needed for his compostela.
The afternoon was devoted to cooking and eating our main meal, washing and drying all our dirty clothing and getting organized for our departure at 5:00 tomorrow morning… and getting to bed early as we have a long walk planned for tomorrow.
Another vegetable main meal, cooked in our nice studio apartment. The red drink in the tumbler is gazpacho, commonly found in Spanish grocery stores… it’s delicious and we hope we can find it back home.
This morning the plan was to take the bus from Mansilla de las Mulas to León. We plan to spend tonight and tomorrow night in León before continuing our journey to Santiago.
There is always a bit of anxiety on the Camino when you try something new and wonder if your information/directions/processes are correct. Especially if it might mean extra walking, walking in hot sun or long, unproductive delays. Today we are sitting outside of a bus station that is locked up tight, no one else around and the bus is supposed to arrive in 20 minutes.
“Anxiety hiding” smiles
Then, out of nowhere, another pilgrim walked up, two locals with suitcases and a young guy dressed in a suit carrying a computer. 5 minutes later a bus drives up, opens the door and to Jim’s question, “Leon?”, he responds “si”. Yes!!!
We climbed the steps into the bus, paid 3.60€ for two tickets, found a seat, and 25 minutes later we arrived at the León bus terminal.
Once again on familiar ground (this is our 5th visit to León), we stopped at the kiosk to buy our bus ticket out of León for Friday morning. But the kiosk was not operating and there were no attendants nearby to help, so we walked to a familiar bar (Cafereria Duna) and had breakfast.
Last year we were told at the bus station, that it wasn’t necessary to buy a ticket in advance as you could buy one from the bus driver when we boarded. However, before we began boarding the next day, the driver had all ticket holders (paper or electronic) line up, and non-ticket holders get in line after them. We, fortunately, got the last two seats available on the bus! So, this time we definitely wanted to have a paper ticket in hand.
We found the bus schedule for our Friday morning departure on the internet, while having breakfast at the “Duna”. Our best option was the 6:00 am bus. So, after breakfast we returned to the bus station and purchased our two tickets (7.20€) with the help of an attendant ( the kiosk was still out of operation) and left triumphantly from the terminal… another mission accomplished.
Now, today’s main objective is to checkin to our home base for the next two days. Problem… checkin time is 3:00 pm!! And we completed the bus ticket mission at 9:30. So, with 5 1/2 hours to kill, we decided to use google maps to determine the most direct walking route to our hotel and to do a recon run to get our bearings, refresh our memories of the landmarks of this fascinating city and nail down the precise location of our hotel and walking time from the bus station to the hotel.
found our hotel
Having located our hotel, we found a nice bar a few steps away and stopped for breakfast #2.
Breakfast stop #2 “Cafe-Bar Marbella”
At Bar Marbella, Jim asked the barkeep for the wifi password (contraseña). She said it was “leonmarbella”… and added very proudly that she was from Marbella, Spain. Jim quickly said we thought Marbella was very nice and that we had stayed there in 2017… and ordered our drinks. While she was getting our order, Jim pulled out his photos of our place in Marbella including local scenes, validating his claim. The smiling lady then responded by preparing two slices of tortilla, gratis, to celebrate our new bond.
At a few minutes before noon, we walked the few steps to our hotel and as we were about to start pushing buttons, the door opened, revealing three people: two checking out guests and Ivan, our contact with the hotel. He invited us into his office but revealed that our room was still not likely to be ready until 3:00, but he would call us if he was able to get it ready sooner.
We chatted briefly, getting better acquainted, then left to kill some more time.
The Camino going into historic León, halfway between the Catedral and our hotelA striking building showcasing Gaudi architecture/design on the main walkstreet a few hundred meters from the Catedral.
After spending the next hour exploring our “old” stomping grounds, we decided to go back to the hotel and request waiting on site until our room was ready (to maybe create a more visual sense of urgency).
Jim called and was informed our room would be ready in 5 minutes. The 1:00 sun was beginning to wear us down, even in the shade… as today was on its way to becoming the hottest of the year at 100F. So we stepped up to the hotel door and droopily, relieved, waited 5 long minutes for it to open.
At 1:10 we were in our room, beating the official check-in time by nearly 2 hours, accomplishing our main objective for the day! And it was all we had envisioned for our two day stay in León.
spaciousness, king bed, plenty of well placed electrical outlets, tables, very comfortable seating.a truly full kitchen, including clothes washer and dryer, stovetop and oven… the works.After a few minutes of doing nothing but getting off our feet and chilling (we forgot to mention we have a very good AC unit, too), we opened our packs and retrieved some of our leftover market purchases from yesterday and made delicious bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on still fresh bread, etc.
We didn’t leave our luxurious new digs for the rest of the day and got to bed early, even after some afternoon napping, and didn’t set an alarm for tomorrow, our day off!
We departed La Perala at daybreak.looking back at the unusual tower of Iglesia de San Salvador.Today’s walk was straight, flat and typical of the photo abovethe double path is perhaps a demonstration of indecisiveness of pilgrims as they walk.someone needs to give this section a trimnearly 5 miles of walking straight and alternating between the gravel path and the infrequently traveled pavementWalking into El Burgo Ranero, a favorite breakfast stop after 5 miles.Enjoying a delicious version of tostadas and homemade preserves.
After a nice break and breakfast, we reached out to our favorite taxi on the Camino, a Tesla driver. We noticed his vehicle being charged as we walked passed his house into Burgo del Ranero, so when our breakfast barkeep phoned him and requested a ride for us, we were elated and jumped aboard when he arrived 10 minutes later.
The ride from El Burgo Ranero took about 15 minutes to skip an 8 mile chunk of Camino that ended at Reliegos. We paid the driver 18€, the best recent investment we’ve made for improving the quality of Camino2023. And off we went to walk the remaining 4.5 miles into Mansilla de las Mulas.Back on the straight, flat path into Mansilla…Upon arriving in Mansilla de las Mulas, we called our hostess, who confirmed that check in time was still at 1:00. So we relaxed and had a hot chocolate and complimentary pound cake then walked into town to locate Casa Mansilla.
We had a nice positive experience at the Mansilla hot chocolate stop. A young Spaniard, Sergio, sitting at the adjacent table heard Jim struggling on the phone conversation with our apartment hostess, trying to clarify when we could checkin and the checkin process. Sergio offered and we accepted for him to take Jim’s phone and continue the conversation for us… his English was very good. He had his own consulting company and he gave us his card, offering to intervene if we needed help with the language on the remainder of the Camino. He lives in Valencia.
Once we nailed down our destination, we did some recon to get our bearings for the day.
Our apartment in Mansilla de las Mulas: Entrance and stairway on ground level and 4 balconies living room(2), kitchen and bedroom on second level.living room, bedroom and kitchen
While waiting to checkin to our apartment we perused the Tuesday fresh market, located across the street, to develop a strategy and menu for our main meal for the day.
As soon as we checked in, we assessed our kitchen capabilities and returned to the market and a nearby grocery to shop. The result was a delicious collection of vegetables prepared by our resident chef, Linda.
vegetable melange prepared by Linda for our main meal. Components purchased from fresh market in square when we arrived: potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, onions, zucchini, carrots, bacon. Accompanied by fresh bread and Ribera del Duero Reserva wine (100% Tempranillo)
The remainder of the day was spent napping, reading and blogging.
Linda passing by the Arco de San Benito on our way out of townCrossing an 18th century bridge over the Cea River. The cross monument marks the point where the Camino de Madrid merges with the Camino Frances. The bridge has its origins in Roman times.Tree lined walking paths passed by a very large athletic park with multiple athletic playing fields and structures.As soon as we left the park the Camino became a gravel path again, parallel to a two lane highway after maneuvering through a series of traffic circles and interchanges linking the national highway (N-120) and the Autovia.The path took us passed many cornfields and was lined with trees that form protection from the afternoon sun.Linda spotted a deer in the field adjacent to the path and Jim snapped it, even though it was pretty far away for clarity. When reviewing our photos for the day, we discovered a second deer near the first but missed when we took the shot.The path was pretty much like this for most of our 6 mile walk after leaving Sahagún.To break the monotony, Linda walked on the parallel paved road to change the walking surface for a while.our first glimpse of La Perala, our Albergue for the day and evening, just outside of Bercianos.A favorite of ours, La Perala is only 6 years old and has a very hospitable staff. At 46€ for a double room with bathroom, its a real value.Our room in La Perala was not only spacious but had two bedside tables rather than one, electric outlets for each bed, an additional table and two chairs, not just one.
We once again renewed a pilgrim acquaintance with Artur, from Leon, France. We have met him so far at Hornillos, Hontanos and now Bercianos. He is walking farther each day than we are, but injured his right shin a couple of days ago and stayed the past two nights recovering at La Perala. As we mentioned before, Artur is 80.
Artur and Jim after our lunch together today
After Jim told everyone he saw today that he was celebrating his 77th birthday, a surprise birthday cake was delivered to our table tonight for dessert, compliments of our gracious hostess.
Jimandi 