Day 20 - San Martin to Astorga

Last night's dinner at the albergue got partially cancelled due to power outage.  It would have been nice if they had told us they could not cook but had a few things that don't need cooking.  For instance, the salad I eventually had.  Robert and I sat at a table in a room with a lot of others in the dark waiting for food that was never coming.

The first part of today was more of the same ... a horrible path beside the busy freeway.  This morning the cars felt even faster.  San Martin is just a few rows of houses on either side of a freeway.  Most vehicles barely slow at all going through it.  It seems really dangerous with the front doors a few meters from the busy road.

I walked alone today and took a slow easy pace.  I'm still a little beat up from the day coming into Leon.  It threatened rain all day but I stayed dry.  It was a bit windy and cooler.  Today was the first time I wore long pants all day on the entire walk.

After about 7km the path moved away from the freeway.  It entered a town that was a town and it had a nice bridge.  We were finally out of the flat fields and the not so nice little towns with nothing in them.

There were now trees and rolling hills.  It was so nice not to be able to see 5km down the Camino.

With still a good distance to go I could see the small city of Astorga.  It is a very pretty city.  I enjoyed a beer and some food in a lovely square.

Coming into town there was a walkway over the highspeed rail track.  I had to walk about half a kilometer to cross a track 10 meters away.

My hotel is quite nice and right across the street from the cathedral I could see from miles away.  It is one of those older elegant hotels.

Walking around town I took some shots of the cathedral with its many styles and the Gaudi Palace across the street from my hotel (The Gaudi Hotel).  The GP looks oddly out of place and might be more appropriate for Las Vegas.

Robert and I had dinner at a very good place called Le Pepa.  We were the first ones in at 8pm and were nearly finished before the next group were seated.  As we left at 9:30 more people were coming in.  Spain eats late.