Camino Francés Part 5: León to Astorga

We spent two days in León then walked three days to Astorga where we had another rest day. Yes, that’s not much walking between rest days but both of these cities deserved some extra time to see. We have about three more weeks of walking, with two more rest days planned.

León

The dominant presence in León is the 13th century Cathedral. Like Chartes in France, the León cathedral is classic gothic designed with ribbed supports and flying butresses, leaving a large amount of the walls available for glass. The age of the windows, the size of each window and total area of glass is truly impressive.

A local cornet (a type of bugle) and drum band held a procession just down the street from our apartment. I had never seen a cornet like the ones they played. They are very compact and use a twisting valve mechanism instead of standard horn valve system.

The architect Antoni Gaudí did most of his work in the Barcelona area. He did, however, design a building in León, Casa Botines which has his distinct architectural style.

We also visited the San Isidor museum, which housed ancient Bibles and other books. It also keeps the Chalice of Doña Urraca, one of roughly 200 chalices in the world claiming to be the Holy Grail. More likely, this is a 12th century work.

The museum also includes 12th century mural paintings on the ceiling. Quite impressive.

We also just rested, prepared our own breakfasts with granola, yogurt, fruit and no local ham, and found some decent Mexican and Asian food for a change. After two rest and tourist days, we were back on the Camino.

Day 35 León to Villar de Mazarife

We had a long walk out of Leon, partly through industrial areas. Later we found a Spanish ID card on the ground on the trail. Dave ran down the person just ahead, but it was not hers. We branched off the main trail (which just went miles adjacent to a busy highway) to a longer but more scenic trail that went through the countryside and small villages. We left the ID card with the first Bar/restaurant we passed. When we arrived in Villar de Mazarife, we flagged down a taxi to ride to Hostal Libertad (as there were no available rooms in Villar de Mazarife) on main route. Being Sunday, the town was closed down, but we luckily found one place open before 9 pm that served pizza.

Day 36 Villar de Mazarife to Hospital de Órbigo

We took a taxi back to Villar de Mazarife and continued the walk in the country to Hospital de Órbigo. We actually walked a bit further to Santabañés de Valdeigresias, but we are memorizing the names of the places we stayed in and Hospital de Órbigo is a larger town and easier to remember. We walked with a talkative french woman who spoke in broken English/Spanish/French/German and described her family situation in greater detail than we cared to know, but she was walking the Camino partly to clear her mind so we commiserated with her for the morning.

We entered Hospital de Órbigo on the famous Puente del Paso Honroso, which spans the Órbigo river. We happened to be there on the third day of a three day festival. There were many locals dressed in their idea of Medieval costumes, many booths selling food and trinkets, music etc. We talked to a fellow pilgrim the next day and apparently they had jousting competitions that evening.

We continued our walk into Santabañés de Valdeigresias, which was a bit long and tedious and warm. Our Hostal was nice, however, and we shared a pilgrim dinner 5 other pilgrims, including a girl from Washington DC who had just started her Camino in Leon the previous day. Whether it is day two or day 36, we are all pilgrims

Day 37 Hospital de Órbigo to Astorga

This was a short day, only about 8 miles. We are starting into some hills again as we are about done with the relatively flat Meseta. At about the halfway point, there was a famous stop where a woman has set up a buffet of various pilgrim food. You take what you want and then donate the amount of money you can. This was our breakfast, so we had fruit, hard boiled eggs, some toast and Susie squeezed some orange juice. We loved the hospitality of what they were doing, so we donated generously.