Day 26 - May 23, Friday - Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga - 10.7 miles from 7:40 am to 11::30 am

Slept In little. Arose at 6:30 am and took my time since we had planned an easy day of a little over 10 miles. We had coffee and left the hotel about 7:40 am. Saw the young woman, Tenny, from California as we were walking out of town. She had been walking since 6 am; her foot is doing well and she is a fast walker. She took the preferred path today and Stoney chose the option - the road walk to Astorga. It had rained in the night and he prefers asphalt to mud. It was his turn to choose and he also prefers the more direct route. 

We walked on dirt farm roads for some time before we actually began walking close to the highway. We did not see any other pilgrims for probably 2 hours. A couple of times the path crossed the highway but it was safe although I did not tarry. 

About 2 hours in we crossed the highway to stop in a gas station. Stoney was hankering for coffee. He chose Cafe Largo which came out of this machine and the cup was about the size of two small Dixie cups. The cost approx. $1.25. I had chocolate con leche (hot chocolate) and it was the same size except a tiny spoon came with mine. 

We bought a tiny package of vanilla cookies (2 each) to go with our drinks. One of the guys at the gas station told us it was even going to get colder in the next couple of days - down to 0 to -3 Celsius. We are already cold at at 3 Celsius with wind blowing 20-25 mph. Stoney keeps saying the wind reminds him of our time in Kansas. 

We won,t cross over these 7,000 ft. snow covered mountains. They are gorgeous.

Flowers along the road today 

Below is Cruceiro Santo Toribio with the out lying areas of Astorga in the background. 

Getting closer to Astorga.

The way over railroad tracks. 

Steep climb briefly into the town. 

Interesting garden. 

Huge way mark. 

First church we passed was in San Francisco Plaza - Church of St Francis. 

Beautiful gardens here. 

This pilgrim welcomes people to themunicipal albergue in the background. 

Our hotel on Plaza Mayor and our room looks out onto the Plaza. 

City hall is to the right. 

We visited the Guadi building, Palacio Episcopal on Plaza Cathedral. 

And next door was Iglesia de Santa Marta. 

This is Andy from Germany. He has walked the Camino 7 times - there are different Caminos and I'm not sure where he has been in the past. We have leap frogged with him for some time and I nick named him "the happy German" because he is always smiling. The day we missed the turn and took the option, Stoney was not a happy camper. Andy was at the same bar taking a break and very peacefully spoke to Stoney to no avail. He brought over his guidebook and knelt down beside my chair and suggested we go on to San Martin because he had stayed at a nice place there on one of his walks. We did continue on the option route and it worked out fine. We saw today and I got this pic of him and learned his real name. Stoney thinks it is odd we keep bumping into him but I believe it's par tog God's plan for our Camino. Andy is also very peaceful. His mother is hiking the Camino this year and she began one week ahead of him. 

Had a good pilgrim dinner and went to bed rather late at 9: 30 pm.