We left Astorga, once again passing through beautiful buildings and cathedrals. Including another one of Antoni Gaudí’s. For those of you that don’t know (because I didn’t) Gaudí is a famous Spanish architect known for his unique designs. His work was from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. There were only 7 (I think) buildings built during is actual lifetime, all in Spain. Most of them are in Barcelona, but the camino has us go past two of these buildings. We saw the first in León (and didn’t realize it), the second here in Astorga (and didn’t realize it). But, I took photos without realizing it because they were so dang pretty! So even though I learned of it later, I still can look back and understand more of what I was looking at.

Today was another beautiful day. As we begin to head out of the meseta, we get back into cooler weather and away from streets, which is welcomed. It was still a warm day, but we passed through some beautiful spots.

We have seen a lot of animals along the way and one of them that we have seen TONS of roaming free but clearly loved, are cats. They’re so stinking cute! And there’s been so many of them!

We pressed on, passing more buildings, stopping at weird cowboy bars (they tried to get Debbie to have whiskey or tequila at like 10am) and dirt, but made it to our albergue.

We actually arrived early and waited an hour outside for them to open. It was just the sweetest place. Another magical albergue. It’s run by an English company and donation only. There were three volunteers working, one from the U.S., one from Ireland, and one from Australia and they were just the kindest people! They really want to be sure you feel like you’re at home and comfortable. They had bunk beds, a quiet room, and a beautiful garden. They we’re genuinely there for whatever you needed, or didn’t need! At 4:30 they had afternoon tea, which was wonderful. Everyone sat around, drinking tea, having biscuits and just chatting. It was just wonderful. Debbie and I went to dinner up the road, WATCHED GERMANY GET ELMINATED FROM THE WORLD CUP, and went back to relax and sleep.

Day mileage: 13
Total mileage: 330
Personal mileage: 13.59

We headed out this morning and it did not take too long for me to realize that it was way to hot for my sweater, which meant it was gonna be a warm day. Those, I think, are the worst mornings. When you already can tell it’s going to be a hot day based on how warm it is in the morning.

We are currently walking through The Meseta. It’s the most terrible part of the Camino that is the entire path between Burgos and Astorga. It’s the flatlands. The hotlands. The time-and-distance-doesn’t-make-sense lands. The meseta takes occupies over 81,000 square miles of Spain’s central area. It’s why it’s been so ugly and hot. This is the part of the Camino many people skip over, take a bus, or rent a bike through. It’s hot. All I could think about is HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS IN JULY AND AUGUST!?

We will be out of it in a few days time. But for now, we melt.

We crossed over an ancient Roman bridge, saw baby cows, and walked through miles of hot desert heat with no shade! It was swell.

Near the top was the cutest freaking oasis of a place run by the kindest human. Hammocks. Beautiful rocks. So much food! Crackers, drinks, fruit, endless! All for donation. It was the only spot for about 6 miles and it was so needed.

After lots of watermelon and cooling off, we pushed on to Astorga. Down a hill, past another statue, and across the most obnoxious civilian bridge ever! Literally, this bright green bridge has you zig zag up ramps to the top to walk straight across OVER TRAIN TRACKS to zig zag back down. Not a single person on this bridge was thrilled. We get enough incline and decline, haha! I looked at the bridge before we started and looked at Debbie and said “They couldn’t have designed a more efficient bridge? Can’t just walk across or have a plain standard bridge for this?” Which was followed by my favorite part- at the end or the bridge there was sharpie written on a post that said “Peace, love, + happiness to all… Except the designer of this bridge! p.s. my feet hurt”

Hahaha! I felt so validated. This whole bridge was just so extra.

We finally hike up one last cobblestone hill to the albgergue (to find another statue) and check in. The woman checking us in was from Georgia and very sweet. She gave Debbie and I bracelets. I’m not sure why, no one else checking in got them, but it was very sweet.

We rested and showered and were going out for dinner, pharmacy, and supermarket. On our way down who do we run into, no one other than Jens! Earlier in the day, I heard someone singing in the stairwell “I don’t care, I love it!” And it sounded like Jens. I was sitting on my bed, too lazy to climb down and I yelled his name to no reply. Figured I got the voice wrong. NOPE! Turns out it was Jens, he just didn’t hear me call his name. We say hi and bye and go check our the plaza. We hop around restaurants, see what they have to eat, go to the pharmacy so I can buy my own tape for my shin and restock Band-Aids. We swoop around to hit the supermarket because we were near it (still hunting for food) and it turns out to be the biggest supermarket we have seen on the Camino so far! I got so excited, I decided to make dinner! I bought all the stuff for a salad and grabbed some salami. We went back and I was so excited to make my salad. Spinach, tomato, olives, garbanzo beans (thought of you Mom!), cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, and cheese. With some vinaigrette. Sooooooo good! I had that, salami, and some wine I bought for €1.80. The salad was way too big for me to eat it all, so I pawned it off to anyone I could find. Jens had some and sat with me to eat a while. Aaron and two others in his group ended up finishing it off! Aaron’s dinner of spring rolls didn’t turn out too well (we had no oven) so it worked out well. We all sat, ate, chatted with each other and new people and then I headed up to pack my bag and sleep.

It started to rain tonight! The rain is back! Debbie and I were talking asking for cool weather and rain and voila! It came. Looking promising for cooler weather from here on out.

Day mileage: 15.5
Total mileage: 317
Personal mileage: 17.22

This morning out of León was beautiful. There’s something about walking through big cities with empty streets that just seem beautiful (when you know they’re not abandoned… Creepy).

We passed by cathedrals and buildings with just the most amazing architecture. If I do the Camino again, I think I would like to explore the history of each town more, especially the bigger ones and understand what I am looking at more.

I braided my hair differently today and loved it. I feel like you all needed to know that. It really wasn’t anything special, but I felt good! Haha! It’s the small luxuries that make you feel good out here on the Camino. A bathroom with soap, showers you don’t have to hold down to run, a place to dry your wet hands, wool blankets on beds, ANDNICELYBRAIDEDHAIR.

We walked past a lot of houses built under? Into? the ground, which we haven’t seen much of until today. We walked and walked and walked and it was again SO HOT. Who knew I would miss the rain so much 😭😭.

We pushed a little farther ahead just to balance out tomorrow again and stopped at the cutest albergue! It had a pool! And hammocks. And baby chickens. And ice cream! Well, most places have ice cream, but after a hot day it was very much needed! We hung around, relaxed, showered and had yummy pizza for dinner in these cure little pizza boards that I didn’t take a picture of because I was too busy stuffing my face.

Day mileage: 14.5
Total mileage: 301.5
Personal mileage: 15.2

Today was another day spent walking mostly next to the road. We have had and will have a lot of that lately. It’s not my favorite. It makes the days feel longer and the views less appealing. Plus it’s been getting REAL hot here.

We got little bits of forrest and dirt roads today, which was nice and provided some cooler air and shade. We walked by a donkey who was in his, I guess cage (pasture? Arena? Fenced area?), Who was wandering around eating grass and walked along with us over to where the gate opens wanting us to open it and let him out. It was so heart breaking not to be able to!

The last bit into León was pretty rough. It was dirt and rocks, downhill, and SO HOT. SO HOT. It was definitely the least favorable part of the day. My shin was just on fire, it was awful. Debbie’s toes were killing her, no good.

We got to the albergue and I just slept. Slept, slept, slept. Which I don’t normally do. I think between this cold/cough, my shin, and the heat, I was just worn out. But my nap didn’t help because I definitely woke up grumpy. We went to get food and it wasn’t enough. I was not fun to be around. I wanted a wrap or brace for my shin, but no pharmacy was open because the whole weekend was a celebration of Saint John and the entire city just shuts down, I was so frustrated. To top it off, I went to use my credit card to pull out cash but needed a pin I didnt have and had to call the bank and pay again for travel time, blah blah blah. Just not my day. In hindsight it doesn’t sound so bad, but it felt unbelievably frustrating.

But, at the end of this, I ran into Aaron again! Arkansas Aaron, not the other Aaron. His group had decided to take a rest day and were sort of staying in the same albergue. We talked for a while, about this blog, him saying atta girl, had a few laughs. Afterwards I went to shower, took and ibproufin, got cash, and suddenly the day didn’t seem so awful.

Jens was in town too! He also had a bandage in his first aide kit that I could use to help my shin. He said he was at the park, about a 10 minute walk, and I messaged him on wifi saying I was leaving. Well, as I get close to the park, I see it. I see all the people, the food trucks, the vendors and I think “oh no”. I was assuming it was just a standard empty park with maybe a few people..NOPE. Turns out there were loads of people at this park. I began to circle and wanner this park looking for Jens, admiring the cuteness of it all, until I found him and four others sitting at the base of the fountain. I say down and he handed me a beer, asking if I saw his message. I was confused and unsure of what he meant. Turns out he messaged me to tell me they were sitting at the base of the fountain but when he realized there was no time stamp because I didn’t view it in time before I left, he went and borrowed chalk from a vendor and at the base of the gate wrote in big letters on the ground “D. LOVE @ THE FOUNTAIN” with an arrow. I ran back to look and sure enough there it was! So cool! But I walked right over it, haha! I drank the beer and just laid on the grass and finally relaxed. I was able to just appreciate and enjoy where I was. I listened to the children running and playing, the conversations next to me, the fountain, the DJ,b and the overall hustle and bustle and just enjoyed it. I eventually was hungry and went over to one of the food trucks and picked the Peruvian one which was FREAKING DELICIOUS. It was a potato, quinoa, chicken and veggies with a spicy mayo of sorts and sooooooo yummy. After a while, I headed back and crawled into bed.

Day mileage: 12.6
Total mileage: 287
Personal mileage: 15.58