We left our albergue early this morning to head to the bus depot. We decided to bus to Astorga as early as possible, and then walk for the remainder of the day.
As soon as we left the albergue, we could tell that something big had gone on the night before. Some sort of festival. On our way in to the downtown core, we had noticed stages set up through the city. The noise throughout the night we didn’t realize was from this giant party. Teenagers and 20 something’s were still out all over the streets at 7am. Many drunk, many loud, some were crying, some were bleeding. Smashed bottles lined the streets, broken windows on businesses and empty liquor bottles and cups were EVERYWHERE! We passed a police car heading to from where we had come as we walked out of old Leon. Street cleaners were out in full force. We walked along the riverbank towards the bus depot and watched as the city workers used fire hoses and shovels to clean up the mess.
I admired the Parador as we passed it, and Karis stopped to pose with a statue. (Oh Karis!)
I’m happy to see that the vomit on the ground in front of the statue didn’t make it into the picture. (We noticed this afterwards!)
Minus the chaos of the party remnants, we did enjoy Leon. You could definitely see the beauty beyond all of that.
Our bus trip to Astorga was quick. About 45 minutes. More beautiful churches. Another beautiful town.
When we arrived in Astorga, it started to rain. And rain. And rain. It’s funny, because as we were planning this trip, my biggest concern was having it rain. I was so worried about being wet and cold. Not being able to warm up or dry out. Today it was so welcomed! Yes, we were wet. I only wore my poncho and not my rain suit. My mom, only her rain jacket, and Karis, only her poncho. My sleeves were wet, my face and hair were wet, but it felt great! We weren’t sweating to death, we weren’t shivering – it was perfect!
As we walked today, Karis talked about Sydney and how much she misses her. She said, ” I wish that Sydney was here, because I miss her so much. But if she was here, I’d also wish for some duct tape to tape her mouth shut so we wouldn’t have to listen to her complain about walking.”
This kid cracks me up. All the time.
Today we walked 18.5km to El Ganso and we are staying at albergue Gabino. It’s another beautiful one. A private albergue. So much nicer than the municipals. We made our own dinner in the kitchen tonight and enjoyed super hot showers. Tomorrow is a big day. We will climb to the highest elevation on the camino Frances route. To the iron cross. It is supposed to rain. I do hope for a light rain so the trail doesn’t become too slippery with the steep climb and decent.