Hospital del Orbigo to Astorga

Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga 

Leaving in the morning. Sunrise on a storks nest.

A morning view of the bridge. It is a beauty.

These are the jousting fields where they have medieval festivals. Green field where the river used to be.

Two women we met in our B&B over breakfast, one from Australia and one from the states who met in Spain 45 years ago, took us to a special albergue to look at the yard. It was very zen like. The gardens were lovely and well tended. The whole albergue is dedicated to The Way. This cross was in the back garden.

Courtyard garden.

The whole courtyard was made of these stones and one part in a shell.

Just a cool albergue sign.

As we were coming out of town there were two ways to go. At our morning map session Roz was adamant that at the last house we turn right. When got to that intersection this was painted on the road.

Jarrod is off on the last part of the meseta.

Little town of Santibanez.
We met up with Jarrod at this little stop. There was an old man, probably widowed, running a little store in a cubby hole of a place. I say he was a widower because I needed to use the bathroom and he took me into his house and it just looked like a man who was living by himself but hadn't always. He was very sweet.

Fuente or a fountain for water. Some of these are just taps and some are fancy.
The Meseta. Great stuff to walk unless you are like me and kick small stones into your shoes. Annoying.

I took a picture of this steeple because it looked weird.

When we got closer I realized they had put a megaphone on the back.

A little oasis on the trail. Some people have gone to a lot of trouble to make things quaint and interesting.

We continue to walk. Jarrod far ahead and Roz and I puttering along.

Then out of nowhere is this oasis. You could hear voices for quite awhile before we reached it.
Jarrod was there ahead of us. His comment, "This is my favourite." This man provides, for a donation, almost anything you could possibly want to eat or drink.

The table to the right is filled with fruit, juice, water, eggs, cheese, crackers, etc. To the left in the back is a stand that has coffee, tea etc.

He even had basic first aid too.
Good looking three pilgrims.
Under 270km to go.

Cross at the top of the hill overlooking Astorga which is where we are heading.

Downhill into Astorga. Man downhill is so hard on the knees. Especially on pavement.

Unexpectedly this walkway appeared that we had to use to get over the railway. Unfortunately Roz is afraid of heights and this really sent her stress level through the roof but she made it.

Astorga has lots of murals.

This one was a little weird. 

Our Albergue. We arrived in Astorga mid afternoon tired and hungry. Our intent had been to spend some time looking around this city but didn't happen. Astorga has been the crossroads for the Camino and the old Roman road. This gave rise to over 20 pilgrim hospitals in medieval times but also the convergence of nearly half of Spains commerce coming through Astorga.

 Close to the Cathedral as usual. Roz has a knack for finding us places close to them.

The Gaudi building known as the Bishop's Palace, Palace Episcopal. 

We didn't tour this Cathedral as we were so tired and we were looking for food.

But it is gorgeous.

This little guy was in the entrance of our albergue 

Our room. Definitely not to code.

Love the night lights of the Cathedral.