Astorga

     Great early start. Walked in the dark until the next town where we stopped to say hello to Christine. She is an expat from the Netherlands and now runs her own albergue. We got to Astorga before it got hot and decided to get reorganized for the second half of the trip. 

     First, we unloaded 10 lbs of gear and mailed them to Santiago. This means my backpack is going to be a lot lighter and I will probably freeze when it gets really cold. I am now down to a single pair of pants, one underwear and a thin jacket. There is definitely going to be some commando days and I hope my previous problem of butt chafing does not occur. 

     Next, we get a private room at the municipal albergue for 5 Euros each. Municipal albergues are like local city YMCA, cheap, noisy, full of younger and more noisy folks. Our private room has two bunk beds, same door color as all the other rooms in this place that holds 165 beds. In the last few hours, no less than five people have entered our room by mistake. One claimed that it was his room, another wasn't too sure but had to have a closer look to be sure. Did I mention that all the rooms are not lockable?

     Astorga is a beautiful city with some Gaudi buildings, has the history of bringing chocolate to the rest of Europe and the start of some real climbing on the Camino. On our two previous visits, we tried but failed to visit the Chocolate Museum. Third time's the charm. It has moved a bit farther away from the historical side of Astorga and we had to search and walk a bit to Tour it. Sad to report that it was not worth the time and effort and the Cadbury factory in New Zealand or the Willy Wonka movie easily surpasses it.

Bishop's mansion by Gaudi

Laura and her Mini's great grandfather.