Villar de Mazarife to Astorga

Remember the pizza I was so excited about last night?  Turns out that in spite of the pizza ads plastered on the windows of this restaurant where we were staying, they only had 2 mini pizzas in stock, both of which looked as old as the Roman roads we'd been walking on that day.  They were served cold but were microwave heated at our request and we were dumb enough - and hungry enough - to eat them away.  Seriously, they were so tough you could have strapped them onto your feet and walked the whole Camino with them and never gotten a single blister!

We gave up on that place and instead had dry bread with Nutella and an orange in the small 2nd floor lounge of our hotel, where we were the only guests with the exception of 2 other couples.

Morning breakfast was a slight improvement over the pizza, but only slightly - slices of white bread, coffee, and juice.  Our taxi driver, Isaias, picked us up at 7:20 and dropped us off 8 minutes later at the exact spot where he had picked us up the day before.  It was quite an experience, as he drove like a bat coming from a very warm place!  As you can see from the photo below, he was quite proud of his driving while Chris and Diane were just glad to be alive!

 Seriously, Isaias was a very nice fellow....

No sooner did we begin our walk when, about 10 minutes in,one of our foursome had to make an urgent pit stop.  It happens on the Camino, often.  A quick run down farmer's field drive and an opportune bush, and can you see who is behind the fourth bush in the row? 

Sorry, that will remain our secret!  The protocol on the Camino is that you do not look backwards when you know someone is doing their "thing."

The first part of today's trip was along a flat paved road, and then a flat rocky road.  We were serenaded by frogs all along the way, and here's a photo of one for our grandkids that I managed to catch on film before it scampered away!

When we got to the town of Hospital de Obrigo, the journey became much more interesting.  First, there was the oldest and longest Roman bridge still in existence in Spain...

Do you see us above?  And do you notice the set up in the field beside the bridge for an old fashioned jousting tournament?  That has to do with a 15th century legend of a knight who defended this bridge to restore his honour and finally quit once he had broken 300 competitors' lances.  They still have annual jousts in the memory of this knight who some say was the inspiration for the literary character Don Quixote.

From this town we finally left the flat places and roads we've been on for the last few days and got back into the hills and on stony paths.  Some photos of the country and scenes we experienced...

Along the way, we stopped for a lunch in the park of a small village...

...and as we continued our trek, we stopped often to admire all the fields and varieties of wild flowers...

And then we crested a hill and there was a cantina, run by a young guy who invites you to enjoy a variety of fruits or cold drinks completely free.  There's a donation box, OK, but he does it for the sheer joy of serving and meeting pilgrims from around the world...

As I mentioned yesterday, today was a long day, over 30 kms.  So we were very tired near the end.  The last spot where we rested, about 5 kms from our destination for the day, I took this photo of an unaware Jeff and Chris.  It is hard to say who looks more tired: they, or the sad little donkey we passed just minutes later!  What do you think?

 

We finally arrived at our hotel, a really nice little place, at 4:05, making this our longest day on the road yet.  Shortly after checking in and a quick cleanup, we enjoyed cold beers in a plaza close by with 2 of our many Camino friends, Stefanie from Holland - who works for a government agency in Den Haag - and Tonia from Australia - who is a detective in Melbourne, Australia.  

Which reminds me, our "league of Nations" now includes Russia (no, they do not like Putin) andSouth Korea.

This evening we will be dining in style the Spanish way, in the classy dining room of our hotel at 8:30 p.m.  Since I paid for the pizza last night ( we take turns every day), it is Jeff's turn today: hooray!

Total distance: 31.2 kms

Time on the road: 8:37

Total distance to date: 529 kms

Walking days remaining: 13

Leon to Villar de Mazarife

Although you'd think it would be tough to leave such nice digs as the Parador Leon behind, we were actually very eager to get back on the road again.  We had a very relaxing and memorable stay, and here are some additional shots yet.  The hallway which seemed endless...I think our room was the 20th on the left!

Here, in one of the cloisters, a picture of 2 mothers.  One had an "angel" of a child, the other...well...

(Just kidding, kids)...

That same cloister had a series of plaques on the wall (you can see them in the background) outlining the history of this ancient pilgrim hostal and monastery, and it was sad to note that it has also been used for very unholy purposes.

On a lighter note, we ate at a small cafe/bar near our hotel, but the owner could speak no English and we were given 2 choices for the segundo (second and main) course.  This is what we got...

 

Now we know what chorizo means!  It looks more like breakfast, but it was delicious anyway.  One last picture leaving: 2 rested pilgrims with one permanently weary pilgrim in the plaza of the Parador.

The first part of today's trek took us through the outer western suburb of Leon.  Here we cross the railroad tracks on a pedestrian overpass...

...and shortly after we again come across a whole row of private outdoor wine cellars built into a hill outdoors.  We assume these are privately owned, but are not sure.

 

When we finally get out of Leon and back on a dirt track, the first thing we see is this pair of long abandoned hiking boots.  One can only hope that the owners of these rejects were carrying an extra pair!

 

Today's pleasant journey took us along quiet paved roads...

...as well as stony dirt trails used mostly by farmers getting to their fields...

And yes, I love a good tree - can you tell?

Below is a sight we have never yet seen in the few weeks we have now been Spain: beef cattle.  There is no fence anywhere in sight, so how,they don't wander off somewhere is a mystery to me.

The primary meat consumed in Spain is actually pork.  Strangely, however, we have yet to come across our first pork farm.  Pretty hard to miss eau de pork!  Maybe they keep them all down south.  A much prettier odour came from this field of lovely purple wildflowers...

As always, yellow arrows could be found anywhere and everywhere to guide us on our way again today.  We wondered how old this stony stele might be...

When we arrived at today's destination, we called a taxi as pre-arranged by our travel agent, because the village of Villar de Mazarife has no hotel.  While waiting by the village's church, we got closer than ever to the stork nests you find on every old village church...

...and I took this shot of 3 happy pilgrims being looked on with favour by a contemporary sculpted pilgrim that was erected - together with a new wall and fencing around the church - in honour of someone else who died in 2010 while walking the Way.

Our taxi picked us up in about 15 minutes, and we were off to a village about 15 minutes.  It felt odd to be in a motorized vehicle, our first since May 3.  We arrived at our hotel, and after some necessary adjustments - the first room was a smoker's room and the second room was sprayed heavily with a deodorizer and stank just as bad - we are comfortably settled in.  This evening we are looking forward to pizza for dinner, though anyone who really knows me knows that I always look forward to pizza!  Favourite food!!

Tomorrow after breakfast, we will return by taxi to the spot where we were picked up, and continue on our way from there.  It will be a 30+ km day.  Hopefully we'll sleep tight tonight!

Distance today: 22.2 kms

Time on road: 5:20

Total distance to date: 497.8 kms

Walking days remaining: 14

Leon - Rest Day

Although it's a strange sensation to wake up and not go anywhere, it's a day we really need.  We didn't have breakfast until 9 a.m., and then enjoyed an incredible buffet breakfast in the hotel.  Diane had to almost drag me away!

First, let me provide some images of the place where we are staying, the former San Marcos Hostal and now the Parador Leon hotel.  The hallway leading up to the elevators...do you see Diane?

The ancient floor, where it isn't carpeted...

The ceiling of Knights Templar crosses...

The statuary in the inner courtyard...where's Waldo, I mean Diane?

A hallway along the inner courtyard...

Another amazing ceiling intricately carved out of wood in one of the lounges...

And an ancient confessional I decided to try out, though there was no one on the other side and admittedly I don't look terribly repentant either!

We left the hotel to explore the old city, though the weather was not great - intermittent showers and sunshine.  This photo of a building designed by the world famous architect Antoni Gaudi (our daughter Jennifer especially will be familiar with his work) was a must because of the knight slaying a dragon - that's especially for our grandsons...

The rest of the building...

And a picture of Bert beside a sculpture of the architect Gaudi - his odd posture is due to the fact that the bench was wet with the recent rainfall, and a touch of bursitis in the left arm (ouch, that hurts!)...

Let me change position; ah, that's better.

The cathedral in the city's main plaza, a 13th century Gothic structure whose most outstanding feature as far as we were concerned was its multiple stained glass windows...

It's a popular place to visit, obviously, and there were many tour groups there as well as a class of young school kids neatly lined up and being served a bag lunch by their 2 teachers.

As we walked along we met many familiar faces we had met along the Camino, so lots of hugs along the way, as you feel like you're meeting family!  One girl, Johanna from Germany, stayed for the day to rest her poor blistered feet.  The pic below is not an unusual sight among pilgrims...

On our way back to the hotel Diane replenished her medicine cabinet: moleskin and Compeed for blisters, ear plugs for her husband's snoring (what, me snore???), and Ibuprofen to cover a multitude of aches and pains!

Because of our late breakfast, we decided to skip lunch and spent the afternoon resting and reading in our room.  On the way back to our room, we lingered over many of the old paintings on the wall, this one below a particular favourite of Diane...

All in all, this former Roman military garrison and base for its 7th legion (the name Leon is derived from the word Legion) is a beautiful old walled city with parks and green spaces everywhere, a great place for a rest!