Woke up, felt something flapping on my foot, assumed it was a bandage which had come loose, and pulled on it. This was a bad move as it turned out to be a square inch or so of skin. Ow. I hope my scream didn't wake up too many neighbours. People of strong disposition can see the photo of the resulting blister here. You have been warned. (This was taken after it'd had a chance to heal, so it was a bit worse.)
After such an inauspicious start, I reasoned that things could only improve, and so it turned out. Today was a fairly good day - I left the pensión at 6:45, eventually finding my way out of León (Note to León city council: the camino is very poorly waymarked here.)
Got a good pace going, passed the unusual church of San Froilán in Virgen del Camino a few kilometres outside León: its facade has 13 tall bronze statues, one of which is apparently St. James who is pointing the way to Santiago. Buggered if I could spot him.

San Froilan facade Virgen del Camino (75K)

Longest Pilgrim Bridge in Spain Hospital de Orbigo (60K)

River Orbigo Hospital de Orbigo (63K)

Clouds Santibañez de Valdeiglesias (31K)

After San Froilan, there are two alternative routes as far as Hospital de Orbigo -- I took the rough track through open countryside rather than walking on the road. Far ahead, I saw a figure marching like a soldier, with a very pronounced swinging of the arms. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a very pretty girl - an American medical student named Michelle. By far the fastest female walker I'd met, and one of the few young Americans. Her lack of Spanish made getting vegetarian food difficult, so she had bought food in León and, in addition to the usual pilgrim's gear, was carrying 2kg of rice, 2 kg of carrots, 1kg of lentils, and various other "worthy" foods. Ouch. We walked and talked awhile; I eventually stopped for breakfast some 10km later at Villadangos del Páramo while she walked on. The village, originally a Roman town, is not as forbidding as its name might imply ("Small Town on the bleak plateau"), and has a beautiful Church of Santiago, near which I grabbed a coffee and sticky bun to get the ould heart started.

Longest Pilgrim Bridge in Spain Hospital de Orbigo (60K)

River Orbigo Hospital de Orbigo (63K)

Astorga in the distance (44K)

Gaudí's "Bishop's Palace" Astorga (70K)

Some 6km later, I arrived in Hospital de Orbigo, with its 200m bridge over the Orbigo (apparently, the longest pilgrim bridge in Spain.) It looked quite inviting, but I thought it was too early in the day to stop, so I decided to walk the 15km to Astorga. As I was passing the refugio, Michelle stepped out, having decided to stop there for the day. We wished each other luck and continued on our separate ways.

The terrain looked interesting again after the flat of Burgos to León. I made good time, resting every now and then in what shade there was on the plateau. There was some interesting cloud formations over Santibañez de Valdeiglesias, alas a 2-D photo doesn't really do them justice. I arrived in Astorga, nearly 50km from León, at 4:00. Knackered.

Gothic Cathedral Astorga (63K)

Bishop's Palace (again) Astorga (60K)

Cathedral stonework Astorga (80K)

More stonework Astorga (70K)

Made a desultory search for the albergue, but checked into very nice Hostal Corona instead (E30 for a big room.) I had a lovely bath -- I'd forgotten how relaxing they were! It was so good, I even considered having one installed in my slightly-misnamed bathroom at home. I had a bite to eat in a café and went out to explore the town. Near the Gothic cathedral lies the so-called Bishop's Palace, one of the few buildings outside Barcelona designed by Antonio Gaudí. Astorga dates from Roman times (indeed, there are ruins visible in an excellent public display behind the cathedral.) During the middle ages, it was an important pilgrimage stopover, being the junction of two pilgrimage routes (the camino francés from the east which I was following, and the camino mozárabe from the south.) Raju claims 22 pilgrim hospitals existed here at one point, the last of which only burned down in the fifties.

Plaza Mayor Astorga (56K)

Ermita Astorga (60K)

Park Astorga (80K)

Roman Ruins Astorga (70K)

While sightseeing, bumped into the South African father and son and English girlfriend whom I'd last seen back in Logroño (11 days and 350km ago.) Had a great chat with them, and we enjoyed a very leisurely dinner later (it was here I found out about the camino juice mentioned back in Logroño.) A few beers makes even the dullest town seem better, though Astorga certainly didn't need that -- in fact, I should probably have spent a half-day there the following day. Still... Got disorientated during a major thunderstorm and cloudburst, took shelter and talked to Mar at home, and eventually figured out where my hostal was. Cleaned up the wound on my foot, in which had lots of fluid had gathered. Not painful, though, so straight to bed.

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