Day 24 - Villar de Mazarife to Astorga - 19.91 miles and more!

Today we started our day with the Albergue breakfast. Amazingly, there were only four of us awake and eating at 6:30. We decided since we had almost 20 miles, eating a good breakfast might be a better idea. I have found that on Sundays even coffee shops don't open till 10am or so. So, K, J, and I walked off at 7am with our headlamps. On a long day, it is nice getting a big chunk of the walk out of the way before the sun even comes up!

The first place that had any activity is the Hospital de Orbigo. It is an amazing town with a beautiful bridge. Puente de Orbigo is on this side of the bridge and Hospital is on the other (so named because the Knights Hospitaller of St. John built a hospital there. It is one of the best preserved medieval bridges in Spain dating from the 13th century! It was also an inspiration for Don Quixote.

Bridge looking to Hospital de Orbigo

Cruciero Santa Toribio looking down into Astorga

Much of the walk after this was through the wooded, rolling hills with a few small towns. I was busy talking to Robert on the phone while I was in one town and heard beautiful singing coming from the church. I looked at the church, and missed my sign! So I walked on talking for about a 1/2 mile until it dawned on me I hadn't seen any yellow arrows. I turned around and went all the way back to the church to see the arrow pointed up the hill. Oops! Well then it was all rolling hills with pine trees and scrub till Astorga's outskirts. Yay - we have hills and greenery again! The walk seemed long, WAS long and once outside of Astorga, seemed endless. My hotel was also at the entire opposite end of town. That will make tomorrow a shorter walk but today, I was very tired and "hangry." After a quick lunch, laundry, shower, a god nap, and a call with Robert, it was 6pm and I went to take photos of the town. To be honest, I didn't go inside any buildings today. Everything was closed, so Astorga will have to wait until another visit.

Bishop’s Palace/Palacio Episcopal by Gaudi

Tomorrow it is on to Rabanal Del Camino. Luckily a little shorter 12.8 mile day in preparation for another 20 mile day Tuesday.