Long walk into Astorga today so up and away before 6. Today sis the last leg through the meseta so once again a fairly straight and flat walk. Stopped at several villages along the way as usual. One thing that I don’t think I mentioned previously was the number of villages that have fallen into disrepair and seem largely depopulated. Quite sad to see.
We were pleasantly surprised to catch up with the loquacious Irish John again. He told us he had various foot problems and had to rest for a few days. Also spoke to a lovely couple from Dover who are doing the Camino over a very leisurely 7 weeks. Got into our room w
1.30, would have been 20 minutes earlier had I not been behind one of our transatlantic cousins who asked, what felt like, 100 questions of the the poor lassie at reception.
Had a rest and then explored the town a bit. It was very busy but then it is Saturday night. We ate in the hotel restaurant. We shared a starter of morcilla (similar to black pudding but with more of a coarse pate texture and mixed with apple), Susan then had cod in a leek sauce (a local speciality) and I had one of my favourite meals of tuna steak teriyaki, not so local one would assume. Later we were joined by Rheinhart and Helga from Germany so had a second bottle of cheap cava. Tried to gatecrash a private party in the hotel but fortunately were politely rebuffed.
Camino 2022 