Goodbye to the Meseta

We have made it to the town of Astorga, which in past times was known as Asturica Augusta.  This has been an important spot in Spanish History for the better part of 2,500 years.  As usual, Romans built on a Celtiberian settlement, and remained an important center of commerce during the Visigothic period, the Muslim period, the medieval period, and is today an important gathering point for a number of pilgrimage routes.

More about Astorga later.  We left our posh monastery-hotel in Carrion de los Condes well before the hotel was ready to serve breakfast, but they were kind enough to pack a picnic for us.  The "picnic" turned out to be about 3 lbs of foodstuffs that I was grateful for, but not excited to carry.

The road out of Carrion is tough - you have nearly 11 uninterrupted miles of Roman road.  That's a long way to walk without services.  There is a gentleman with a semi-permanent setup about halfway through; no permanent structure, but a trailer, and he brings supplies out in his van and has tables and chairs set up.  It's not great, but it's definitely a bit of an oasis.  There are a couple of other of these oases that we've run into on the Camino, and they are run on a donation basis as a service to pilgrims.  We are always very appreciative of the kindness displayed towards us strangers.  Unfortunately, this particular gentleman is much more interested in running a business, it would seem.  Several of us had barely put our packs down to take a breather before he was over at our table telling us that we were in a bar and if we wanted to sit, we had to buy something.  This is certainly his prerogative, and I don't think any pilgrim I've met (except for the French ones) would begrudge him earning a living, but this is not exactly killing us with kindness.  As you might imagine his food is overpriced, and when I handed him EUR 1.90 for the Acuarius soft drink he informed me was EUR 1.80, he didn't bother to give me change.  I understand that we don't know people's stories and what they are dealing, but this seems to run pretty contrary to what the Camino is supposed to be about.  So, I prayed for him, drank my soft drink, dusted my boots off and continued on my way.

Our albergue that evening was great and it was nice to relax.  The next day was a long day into the town of Burgo Ranero (Town of the Bullfrogs).  I have yet to have a good experience in Burgo Ranero, so I was somewhat apprehensive.  The kids found a fantastic albergue where, for EUR 12, Ty and I pretty much had a room to ourselves.  The wifi was iffy, but the albergue featured a huge garden with chaise lounges and umbrellas so we sat out all afternoon.  We also found a great little cafe in town where the folks working were so competent and joyful in their work that it was the polar opposite of our experience several days before.

The gentleman running the albergue was a slightly crazy (and less slightly stoned) Italian, who in typical Italian fashion was overly familiar, especially once he figured out I spoke Spanish.  As we were walking out of the albergue after dinner in search of ice cream he patted me on the belly and made a snarky comment about my physical condition.  I just looked at him, and of course Ty was rather amused, "I think he just patted your stomach."  I replied, "yes, and that made me inordinately uncomfortable, but we're in Spain and he's Italian, so it kinda comes with the territory, I suppose."

Our next stop was Mansilla de las Mulas, and by this point I think it was fair to say that we were all looking forward to a rest day in Leon the day after.  Unfortunately, by this point in the trip we had some kids who were dealing with some issues.  Dereck randomly started breaking out in what looked like hives.  Big ones.  Everywhere he had exposed skin.  Sebastian also seemed to have strained his knee, so we were having to help him along a little bit as well.

The walk into Leon was easy, and we had a couple of glorious rest days in the Parador.  We ate good food, and rested, and wandered around Leon, which is another Roman city that was the capital of the Kingdom of Leon until it was merged with the crown of Castile in the 1200s.  There are many Leonese who seem to think that once again Leon should be it's own kingdom.

We were sad to leave Leon, but had a short, hot 12 miles yesterday to the town of Villar de Mazarife.  This town is technically on an "alternative path" of the Camino, but we had such a bad experience in the "official path" town of Villadangos del Paramo that I made the executive decision to try a different route.

Great decision.  Mazarife is a much better town with more albergue options (though one of them is a bit sketchy) and generally happier people.  Unfortunately, summer has caught up with us, and this was our first day of 90+ degrees.  Few albergues are air conditioned, so sleeping last night was a bit of a challenge.

Staying in Mazarife also makes for a very long day into Astorga, which is what we had today.  We walked nearly 20 miles, and left quite early because the high today was projected to be about 96.  We made good time, though Sebastian got lost for 2.5 hours when he took the wrong road (don't worry, we found him), and were in Astorga by around 1:30.

Astorga has about 12,000 people and in ancient times was where several trade routes from western Spain (gold being transported to Roman Gaul, mostly) converged.  It was also important in the Catholic church during the Reconquest of Spain - the Bishop of Astorga was one of the most powerful men in Spain.

We have about 16 miles tomorrow, and we will finally leave the Meseta to begin the climb over the final mountain range into Galicia.  The day after tomorrow we will reach the highest point on the Camino, where we will leave our rocks, symbolizing something from home that we want to leave behind in Spain.  The kids, I think, are beginning to feel their time coming to an end, and they are anxious about that.