Today had a few hiccups but was mostly perfect

Walking down into Astorga this afternoon with the sun peaking through the clouds, I was laughing to myself. All the people who said “it will get better, you have to pass through the meseta and out the other side… it will get better, I promise!” were completely right. You do need to weather the storm. In this case, hours of tedious waking through dreaded fields with no end in sight, to appreciate how far you’ve come.

It was a cold, bone chilling morning, sightseeing in Léon. We missed the first bus out of the city…! But we made the best of it and had more coffee and ate more carbs… every time you order a coffee in León you get a donut or piece of cake free.

And then we came across this handsome guy! So we had some fun…

We got off the bus at the closest village outside the city, to shorten the monotonous suburban drudge and walked nearly 17km into Astorga. Passing through a few villages on the way and then into the country, over rolling hills and through picturesque, peaceful landscapes. A few kilometres from our destination we met David, in a field. David has lived here for years and years with his little kiosk and words of wisdom….and he’s featured in the Camino book.

5 minutes before the picture below was taken a Shepherd and his flock passed by. We watched them climbing the hill in front of us, then quickly disappear from view. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a good photo of them. We did however pass by another handsome devil, just hanging out.

We arrived in Astorga, our home for the night. We learned, it is famous for it’s chocolate. You can all imagine I am one happy girl! And yes, the chocolate stores are open at night while all others are closed. It’s Sunday. I’ve never seen a town with so many candy stores, and open!

finally, across the street from where we lay our heads tonight stands a palatial building commissioned by a Bishop who never actually got to live in it… now it’s home to a museum…. I wonder what happened to him ?