Astorga is an amazing town – one where you could definitely stay an extra day. We tried to squeeze it all in: lunch not long after we arrived, massages at our hotel (which were great and sorely needed), a tour of the Gaudi designed Palacio Episcopal, a quick look at the outside of the cathedral, followed by a few drinks in the Plaza Mayor before dinner there!
Our hotel was also great, so a good nights rest and out into another beautiful morning. Astorga is a long town, so it about 1.5kms to get through then a nice walk to the village of Murias de Rechivaldo, our first break for coffee. We haven’t been stopping enough so we tried today to stop wherever we could, which seemed to work better.
After Murias we had the only section away from road – a pretty straight shot through to Santa Catalina de Somoza, which gave us some good views back towards Astorga as we climbed up through the foothills.
Another break at Santa Catalina (the albergue was really nice – we should have had an early lunch instead of waiting for El Ganso. From there, a couple of paths run parallel to the road and we made good time along nice paths to El Ganso, intending to have lunch at what both guidebooks describe as “the famous Cowboy Bar”. Well, it’s there but it’s owner isn’t, presumably a COVID casualty. We had to settle for Bar La Barraca, which was ridiculously busy. It is run by a lovely couple but I have to say the behavior of the peregrinos was the worst I’ve seen in over 2000km of walking. Absolutely no recognition that they are guests in another country and in someone’s home and business – it was embarrassing! If they’re here to find their inner selves they might need to go back and start again!
Anyway, another roadside path in the slightly increasing heat brought us over a bridge just before Rabanal and then away from the road onto a terrible track, shaded but very difficult to navigate. We slipped back onto the road and completed another great day of walking. Three very lovely villages along a climb from 870m to 1,160, adding 21km to bring the total now to 511km. The video is here.
steelewalking 