14 May 2008

First a few words about out stay in Astorga. When we got there, it was raining and cold so we checked into the Albergue and, first things first, we did our daily laundry and had our shower. Now refreshed, we went in search for a Mercado to get our daily vittals. Since it was now cold and raining, we did nothing more than have our dinner and go back to the Albergue. Our room mates had also stepped out for dinner and were not back so we took the opportunity to repack our packs, fill our bladders with water and get ready for the next day. We were up later than usual since our room mates were still sleeping. The rest of the place was alive and someone turned on the hallway lights which was the cue for us to get up even if they were still sleeping. This is the Camino after all, not a 5 star hotel. We were on the road around 7:30 and it was a beautiful day. We took the opportunity to look around town and wer awestruck by the Gaudi Palacio. We had seen one of his buildings in León and it was beautiful but nowhere close to the magnificience of this Palacio in Astorga. The Cathedral was next door. It was also beautiful in a gothic way but nothing to compare with the ones of Burgos and León. That was all the time we had for sightseeing since our destination today was Rabanal del Camino, a distance of 25kms and 750metre climb. The Camino was fairly decent mostly packed earth that started out yellowish and then turned to reddish. It was generally straight km after km. We went through the villages of Murias de Richivaldo, Santa Catlina de Semozza, El Ganso to finally reach Rabanal. As usual the town was at the top of the hill so, at the 25km point, we had this steep hill to climb and no energy left. To make matter worse, the Albergue we chose was at the very top of the hill. As is the custom on the Camino, we lined up our packs outside the door, waiting for the Albergue to open, when a woman volunteer appeared to say that they only had 24 beds and so, anyone after the 24th backpack, would not get in. We started counting and we were bag 26 and 27. Off we went, on a search for another refugio. We ended up at a very nice one called Albergue Pillar. As we were walking towards the reception, this guy came from behind us and thrust his credential on the table before we could produce ours. That´s not all, it turns out he had 4 more but none of the people were visible and he had no backpack with him. When the hospitaliero asked him from where he was, guess what? Allemagne... Later on, we saw him with carkeys and luggage which he distributed on all the beds he was saving. It is freezing here today and we expect it to get colder tomorrow as we climb another 800 metres to Foncabadón, but that´s for tomorrow. For now, we have to think of dinner. Hasta mañana.