Day 27 - Astorga to Rabanal del Camino

The hotel we had last night was head and shoulders above the bed bug hilton from hell.  We stayed in Hotel Gaudi, across the street from the cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, designed by Gaudi.  Supper was a superior perigrino special.  And we had a good nights sleep, being in a superior hotel, being exhausted, feeling somewhat safer.  We have, however, adopted the concept of putting nothing on, or even near, the bed. And sleeping now involves frequent flashlight checks of the sheets. Just a bit paranoid. Lynn's philosophy is to assume there are bed bugs and hope you don't have an opportunity to prove the theory, as opposed to assuming there are no bed bugs and hoping you don't have an opportunity to disprove the theory.

We decided that as it was a short walk today, only 20km, we would do some sight seeing before heading off. We met the Canadian ladies at breakfast, who are  staying an extra day. This really would have been a good location for that. We will meet them again in O'Cebriero, their last night on the Camino for this year, and plan a big party.

I should mention that as we were entering Astroga we passed a church that had been built on Roman ruins.  They had excavated what was outside the walls and that included a Roman bath with a magnificently preserved mosaic floor.  One thing about the Romans, when they came on the scene, the quality of life certainly picked up. The mosaic floor rivalled the beauty of some we had seen in Israel.

First on the list of things to do was a visit the cathedral.  This was built in the 15th century and has a mix of Gothic, and later styles of architecture.  The vaulted ceiling must be at least 30 metres high.  It was free to visit the cathedral between 9 and 10:30 am, with mass at 10am. We were there at 9.

We wanted to also visit the museum and Bishop's Palace, which didn't open until 10, so we went back to the hotel for cafe con leche and ran into Margie, a personal trainer, who very kindly taped up Lynn's foot using materials provided by Margie and the Canadian ladies. Lynn did make several trips to numerous farmacia's first but was not able to buy what Margie said she needed. Lynn is trying to avoid problems that may be developing - although, she's hoping her problems are just from having the boots on for 12 hours straight on friday the 13th, and a lack of sleep.

Then, after Margie taped Lynn's foot, the three of us visited the diocesan museum adjoining the Cathedral.

Next to it is Bishop's Palace, designed by Gaudi, in a neo-Gothic style.  It doesn't house any bishops but has a marvellous display on peregrino's on the Camino. There were two paintings in there in particular that we both loved. Good thing they weren't for sale or it might have become a very expensive holiday. Unfortunately, we just did not have time to do the placed proper justice. We probably won't see Margie again so we all hugged and bid each other a buen camino. Lynn got all chocked up saying goodbye - she is such a beautiful person.

The way from Astroga to Rabanal was very pleasant, with the scenery becoming much more varied and  interesting once again. The only down side of delaying our departure was that it was extremely hot.

The Way is obviously GBLT friendly, if it were only so for us all.

On the way out of Murias de Rechivaldo, we were serenaded by a cyclist on his harmonica.  No harmonica holder for him; one hand on the instrument and one on the bike handle bars.

Further on in El Ganso, we met the famous bare footed Aussie, James.  He looked to be an interesting character, in his dreadlocks.  Quite young. His only comment on walking in bare feet was that he had to be careful. It seemed he had been drinking quite a few cervesa at that point and when we said we left Astroga late today to visit the cathedral he started going on that it just wasn't right to have to pay to visit a church. We told him we hadn't paid to visit the cathedral, although our ticket to the museum and Bishop's Palace included the Cathedral (a mute point). We certainly sympathized with the sentiment, but the reality is that if a lot of these churches didn't charge tourists to visit - there wouldn't be a church to visit.

The last 2 km going in to Rabanal was a very lovely path through the woods alongside a chickenwire fence that pilgrim's had filled with wooden crosses made of tree twigs. It was a very holy walk through a sacred place.

There are many ways to mark the Camino.

We arrived at the Hostal at 5pm. We really only had time to do our laundry and shower before supper. The intoxicated Aussie from Villadangros was there. He is being very friendly, although we are trying not to encouage him. I'm afraid he will be a daily fixture at our hotels now, as he is traveling with Tee Travel like us and seems to be on the same schedule.

We had another 'hang out' with Kristjan and Kristine after dinner, and in the middle of it there was a local musical parade down the street of the Camino (our street). This is apparently a monthly event paid for by one of the town residents. Very enjoyable.

After that we were both beat and Lynn's feet weren't too happy after another 8 hour day on our feet in the boots. So the blog didn't get done.

The hotel in Rabanal was clean, but coming under the name Hostal, and not having a mattress cover, Lynn found it difficult to sleep. The numerous flashlight sheet checks were all happily negative however.

Summary - Astorga was a wonderful city for sightseeing, said goodbye to Margie, and had a nice walk with improving scenery.

Distance today - 20km
Distance total - 551.5km