October 8th, 2024 Villares de Órbigo to Astorga

October 8th, 2024

Villares de Órbigo to Astorga

15km/9 3mi

Had a wardrobe improvisation. Blister is still mad, so the decision was made to walk with my trail runner on one foot and sandal on the other. It actually works like a champ!

It was a cloudy overcast day with sporadic rain. As we walked, we came across other pilgrims and had the best conversations. We walked with a beautiful lady named Melanie from Canada who was walking the Camino alone, and she told us her story. For her privacy, I will not disclose why she decided to walk the Camino alone, but she is hurting, and we prayed with her along the way.

After a LONG stretch of a very step uphill climb with absolutely nothing else around, we came across this roadside piece of heaven. A former pilgrim had an area set up with every snack you could think of to help us on our way. He had cookies, fruit, avocado, melon, coffee, tea, cokes, water, boiled eggs, avocados, chips, and the list goes on, all he asked was a donation. It was the best stop we have had along this journey. As we walked into Astorga, we got very lost trying to find the place we were staying. It took us 2 hours to find our place only to find out we were in front of it all along!

We visited the Cathedral of Santa María de Astorga. It is a Gothic style Roman Cat

holic church that broke ground in 1471. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

We had a small kitchen and decided to get some groceries to make ourselves dinner and not have to eat another pilgrims meal, and we got stuff to make breakfast the next morning. We made the best burgers for dinner, and in the morning, we had bacon with eggs, toast, orange juice, coffee, and yogurt.