Day 23 - Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga

What a difference a day makes. After a good night's sleep, we both woke feeling pretty good. We spent the night in an albergue, which had three double rooms with ensuite and a large bunkroom. It was all pretty old and authentic, but had been brought up to date with modern plumbing and wiring. 

We woke at 6am, with the dawn light illuminating our washing. I've worn the same shirt and socks for the past two weeks at least - I just wash them in the shower and hang them wherever I can get our elastic clothesline in place.

Breakfast was at 6.30am. We were the first there, breakfast was good and we were out the door by 7am.

The sun came up as we left town. We were taking notice of the heat warning and the air quality warning - everything has been very hazy for a couple of days now and my hay fever doesn't like it (although the symptoms have been mild). The town we were leaving had a lot of history. As well as the exploits of old Don Sueros, the town had witnessed the slaughter of the Swabians by the Visigoths in 452 and later provided the scene of confrontation between Christian forces under Alfonso III and the Moors. It also marked the culmination of the great trek of 2022 by Peter and Cathie.

We'll modestly consign that fabulous saga to the great archive of our own history and move on to the little town of Santibanez de Valdeiglesia. We were eager to pace ourselves and this seemed a good chance for another caffeine fix. Good though the breakfast had been, the coffee wasn't really up to scratch. We saw a sign advertising food outside a fairly nondescript albergue and wandered in.

There was no sign of life, or of coffee, so we walked out again, only to be pursued by an old man gesticulating in a Spanish way. We ascertained that yes, he could make us coffee, so we followed him through the bowels of the building to a pleasant garden littered with the detritus of the previous night's revelry. He swept and wiped a table and brought us some lukewarm water with traces of caffeine and some croissants wrapped in cellophane - the sort that last for a very long time.

We appreciated his kind endeavours, swallowed the coffee, used the toilets, tipped him wildly (as he seemed to have no change) and went on our way.

The day passed quite quickly on pleasant country roads, some sealed, some not.

Eventually, we crested a rise and there laid out before us was the village of San Justo de la Vega, a little over a kilometre away and in the distance, Astorga, a further 4km.

At the bottom of the hill we met a thirsty man. He was drinking when I passed three years ago and he's drinking still. We stopped at the village for a strong coffee, the best of the day and a lovely tortilla, before pressing on in the rising heat.

Further on we came to the crazy bridge over the railway, with its five ramps on each side, like a giant Meccano construction by one of my grandchildren (if they still had such an antiquated plaything these days).

A short sharp climb and we were in Astorga.

We found our hotel straight away. It was just past the ruins of the old Roman baths (Astorga had been, and still is, a spa town, with many hotels boasting hugely expensive spa baths, which most pilgrims can't afford).

Although it was only 11.30am, they welcomed us warmly, asking if we'd like a double bed, or a pair of cosy twin beds. What decided us was the fact that with twin beds you get two sausage-like pillows. With a double bed, you only get one huge sausage - not very user-friendly. It's a flash hotel, so we were surprised when they asked us what time we'd like breakfast. They didn't have a set time, but would fit in with our needs, which is very civil of them. We went for 6.30am, which means we can get away by 7am. Our bags hadn't arrived, but that's not surprising.

The view from our third-floor window is great, looking on to one of the town's many plazas. We'd no sooner taken photos than there was a knock on the door and there were our bags - it's an astonishingly efficient service.

After a shower, we wandered to the next plaza, which is ringed with restaurants, had a drink and shared a plate of delicious nachos, wandered on to the supermarket to stock up with water and cold beer and wandered back for blogs, beers and siestas. Along the way we met our injured friend Marianne from Houston, who is soldiering on after rests days, massages and taping and the help of short taxi interludes. We also ran into Scott from Melbourne (as we do most days).

The temperature is climbing way over 30 in the mid-afternoon, but another positive feature of our hotel is air conditioning, so I'll be getting horizontal within minutes.

It's appropriate to mention that with all the confusion about how far we've come and how far we have to go, I refer to our Camino app (Wisely), since it gives us a standard reference. At St Jean Pied de Port it gives the distance as 767km to Santiago. From Astorga it gives 256.9km. That means we've covered almost exactly two thirds of our journey, with one third to go. We have three moderately long, hard days  of about 26km ahead before our next rest day.

Our Relive video for the day: https://www.relive.cc/view/vevYojJr3J6

Today's photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DNdn15HE7BLMcyUG7

Finally, today's music. I've been tossing up between a few options, but decided that a New Zealand song about summer was quite appropriate - it would take our minds off the heat and bring happy memories: https://youtu.be/pxhvIfJvIrQ

As a bonus, I was thinking about New Zealand singers and one of my favourite clips of just under an hour featuring Kiri Te Kanawa and (surprisingly) Jeremy Irons. If you're a pilgrim, have free wifi and fancy a quiet hour with your earpods in, try this: https://youtu.be/zpgnolyNGjQ