Sept 28 - Just to catch up for the past couple of days, the flights were excellent - meals were great on the plane and in fact, the plane ride was quite quiet and nice , although it is hard to sleep on a plane. The train ride from Madrid was super cool - we were going about 157 km/hour and it was so quiet - tried to catch a few winks - but too excited!
Now for our adventure today - everyone was up early, excited to start our pilgrimage...So we walked to the bus stations (it was at least 36 km that we had to walk today) so we figured we should try a bus right to Hospital de Orbigo to cut our first day walk to 15 or 16 km, we arrived early, had breakfast at the bus station and waited for our bus. It ended up that there was some miscommunication and we missed our bus - we could wait 2 more hours for another bus and tour more of Leon, or rent a couple of taxis and have them take out to the outside of the city - it would increase our walk by 6 km or so, but the ambitious group we were - we went for that idea, Well, we walked, and we walked, we talked, and we talked (and we snacked a bit too),, found some nice shady eating area outside and rested a while...filled up on water and we were off again. We walked and we walked, and we talked and we finally arrived at our destination in Astorga after having walked 32.04 km (we actually walked more - this was just from the hotel to the bus, and from where the taxis dropped us off). Needless to say, we are now the weary, tired and for some, achy pilgrims! We have to find our calculator - as the 21 km turned into 32+ km!!!! There is good news though, this will be our longest distance we are walking - yeah!!! A nice hot shower and a change of clothes makes a person feel wonderful (for some of us, it was quite the test of our footwear - no blisters for me - thank you Running Room for your amazing socks). Oh and another rule - never pass up an opportunity to use a bathroom or fill your water bottle! One of our colleagues new to this kind of experience did amazingly well. I am sure she will look back and be amazed and what she accomplished today!
It was actually a very hot day, just a light breeze every now and then, it was actually a great day for us to start on. This long journey gave us an opportunity to meet pilgrims from many countries (Austria, Ireland, Germany, France and so forth). The terrain was a mixture of rolling hills and walking by fields of corn, grapes, vegetables and of course apple orchards. The temptation to try one was so great, so I did - I shared the most delicious tasting apple - it was crunchy and sweet - maybe an ambrosia. We saw the biggest beefsteak tomatoes we ever saw, amazing that the vines could hold them up. Okay, it is almost 8 pm our time, all this talk of food is making me hungry, time for supper! Oh yes, one more thing, when you bring your own flat iron (even with a converter), it sometimes gets extremely hot, blue smoke coming from your hair when you are using it, may mean that you are burning/frying/ your hair....it that ever happens to you, stop right there and do not use it again, unless you want really short hair. Talk again soon, Sandy
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