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