CAMINO DE SANTIAGO - PART 16 - VILLAR de MAZERIFE - ASTORGA

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson

A day in pictures.

A good reminder to start the day!

The highlight of every Camino morning. First coffee stop.

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday morning.

Happy days!

Bridge into Hospital de Orbigo. Dating from the 13th Century.

Scary templar night in bar in Villares de Orbigo

"Strong and content I travel the open road". Walt Whitman

Dan's Shop

Ivan riding off. It was nice to have a "home" chat for a few km.

The Cruceiro Santo Toribio (left) was  the highest point for the day. Up to that point, it had been a great days walking. The view was beautiful and Astorga looked tantalisingly close. I learned again from the short, steep downhill that followed that it the downhills that cause pain, not the uphills. After the downhill (all of about 1km), the remaining 4km into Astorga were  painfully long. I found the albergue near the Cathedral, had a shower and crawled into my sleeping bag. Just to tired and sore. If it hadn't have been for Angel Susie who came and talked my out of staying there indefinitely and going out for a wonderful supper, who knows. I will always be grateful.

A meal shared with special friends can make it possible to walk again the next day.

Dan's last night. Sad to say goodbye. He was one of the first pilgrims I met on the train together from Bayonne to St Jean. 

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”  Miriam Beard