Thursday 17.04.2014
Ailish’ 18th Birthday!
Bercianos Real
Camino – Astorga via Leon 93kms 299m
Wow, what a
day this has been. The pelicans in the room next door put paid to my lie-in
‘til 0715 by rising at 0600, flushing toilets opening and closing doors and
generally conversing with much merriment. I stuck almost to my guns and got out
of bed at 0700. By 0800 we were almost ready and waiting at the door of the bar
to access our breakfast. Two big pieces
of toast this morning and two tubs of butter and jam.
Anyway off
we trot and eventually find the road we want amongst the maze. I have to
confess at this point that we stayed in the only village without an old church.
The one in existence was so new it wasn’t even finished! Don’t know what
happened to the old one.
We seem to
have developed this habit of arriving in cities at the most inopportune
moments. Today was no exception. Leon was celebrating – what I don’t know. We
have tried between us to work out what comes before Good Friday and think that
it may be Maundy Thursday?! No doubt some of you will know. As a result of all
this activity, it was absolutely impossible to reach the cathedral without
killing half the populace. Throngs of folk; for they were there in their
thousands! So we did indeed follow the
sun and a very helpful lady who waved us vehemently in the direction of yet
another plaza with a church and a Parador. Once there, however, we found our
route out of Leon. Neither the route in or out of this city could be described
as anything other than very mediocre. In fact, I thought Leon to be an unwashed
and unloved city. Maybe others will disagree. Still, leave it behind we did, up
yet another long, hot and busy hill. It has to be said that we have experienced
really good weather as we have seen nothing in the way of rain or cold. (tempting
fate –ed.)Today though, had memories of Italy with its unrelenting long roads
with no shade at all. We did eventually find a tree with a few leaves providing
just enough shade to keep ones head in the shade – mine!
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| Astorga Cathedral |
At some
point on the route Mr. I would like a nice place to stop tonight, had seen a
sign for a four star hotel in Astorga. “That sounds nice.” saith he. “Mmmm….. and how far is it?” I ventured
to ask. With a careless shrug, he dismissed my question with an “Oh, not that
far.” Hmmm……………now 90 plus kilometres later we are in a great venue, a
beautiful town and we will hopefully be offered more than two pieces of toast
for breakfast which is included in the vast sum we have forked our for one
night’s stay.
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| Angels of Stone |
 |
| Gaudi |
Tomorrow is
a 25 kilometre climb so two bits of toast ain’t going to go far!
(With thousands of pelicans marching west and now the Angels of Stone, I'm beginning to think this is a Doctor Who set -Ed.)
Thanks for all the emails and calls. Nice to know you're out there.
ReplyDeleteToday is indeed Maundy Thursday as well as Ailish's birthday (she had a lovely one and thanks for your call). Good luck with breakfast and keep your eyes peeled for the tardis.. x
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