Walked today: 10.2 mi. Camino’26: 182 mi.
What a difference a day makes!
At 5:34 we walked out of our albergue in the dark and found our way with the aid of headlamps until 1st light.
The initial walk of nearly a mile was on a dirt path through a grain field until it merged with the relatively wide, potentially safe shoulder of busy N-120. There was a narrow dirt path that was the “official” camino “road route” running along beside the shoulder, but was poorly maintained and very narrow/overgrown, so we stayed with the paved shoulder instead.
For the next 5 miles we got off the shoulder and walked on paved, frontage roads that paralleled the national highway, changing sides to stay on the paved path that was unused by any type of vehicle and today was also devoid of other pilgrims. We had it all to ourselves.
We traditionally stop at a gas station for breakfast and restrooms at the halfway point to St Justa de la Vega, but Linda said she never felt so good and suggested we go on to St Justa de la Vegas and Jim concurred.
After some 6.5 miles we reached the cross overlooking St Justa and Astorga in the distance beyond.
After successfully managing the steep descent into the village we stopped at Bar Oasis for breakfast after walking 7.5 miles.
We had a nice 20 minute rest and breakfast, the morning sun was still being subdued by some non-threatening clouds, allowing for near perfect walking conditions, so we continued on to Astorga, our planned destination for the day,
When we reached the top of the stairs, Linda spotted an inviting, empty bench for us to evaluate.
While running our test we noticed some unusual activity on the Plaza in front of Hotel Astur, our home for today & tonight.
The hotel restaurant on the Plaza was still closed, so we took possession of a table in the shade, with a view (of the Padel court.). Jim wandered off looking for drinks which could not be found at nearby closed bars (it being 10:45) and eventually found an open supermarket.
Jim returned with a full shopping bag of drinks, etc. and found Linda now deeply into the apparent Padel tournament and had decided who was gonna win. We began to embibe some of our purchases, when a nice young pilgrim approached us and asked if we had a knife. Jim dug into his day pack and pulled out his Swiss Army knife and offered it to Fritz, a pilgrim Germany.
When Fritz returned the knife, we chatted for a bit and he educated us on the game we were watching called Padel, which is becoming the most popular game in Europe, much like Pickleball is on the U.S. As he headed back to his table for lunch and to continue on the camino, Jim gave him one of our “Blog cards” asked him to contact us next time he was in South Carolina.
The Padel players were between sets and even though we were very early for the normal hotel check in time of 3:00, Jim walked to the lobby and identified himself and was informed that our room was ready. While checking in, the hotel computer system went down, so the receptionist gave us our room keys and said we could do the check in later.
So, by 11:30, we were in our second floor room, with a balcony, overlooking the Padel court with a dilemma. Do we rest, start our routine (showers, blog, etc) find a place to eat or watch the Padel tourney from our air conditioned room or balcony.
So, unlike yesterday, when things started going to pot and we didn’t have a lot of options … today everything went as good or better than expected. The Camino sometimes gives and sometimes takes away.
For the rest of the day, we actually did a bit of everything, including eating our main meal at 2:30 only a few steps from Hotel Exe Astur Plaza.
We hand washed a couple of dirty clothes items and hung them on a hanger in the room closet. They were bone dry in less than 2 hours. The air in Northern Spain is incredibly dry. We love it.
We talked about how we felt strong throughout today’s 10 mile walk and we both recovered quickly after we finished. It’s a really positive feeling for us, that the walks seem to be getting easier with each passing day regardless of the distance or difficulty in terrain.
Today was a really good one!
Buen Camino!
Jimandi 