Astorga-Rabanal del Camino

To Santiago 259 Kms.

(Distance 21 Kms. // Time walking  5 hours)

_{With « maragatos* » chiming six times on the town hall bell, we leave the hostal La Peseta. It is still dark and we cross Astorga totally alone. Only « La Pepi », a French pilgrim, is getting something to eat from a vending machine in the street. What a timely woman !.}

Cathedral of Astorga.

_{We walk slowly, drinking in each pace, each street, the Gaudi’s ghost, the cathedral, the Jewish quarter street, the poet Leopoldo Panero’s street (« I was born in Astorga in 1909 and there I want to sleep in my familiar haven of peace two metres below the snow »).}

_{We quit Astorga and, little by little, muscles, feet and blisters are rising to the right temperature. Walking becomes then very nice. After a while a car stops beside us :}

_{- « You have an open bar in Murias if you’d like to have breakfast, I’m opening right now ! », a stout man in his sixties accompanied by a woman that looks like his wife calls to the pilgrims.}

_{Gratefully Paca and I have breakfast in Murias de Rechivaldo. Then we go on walking along a modern path. In this area the modern paths always go beside a red soil track and, sometimes, beside two tracks. When those in power make unneeded public works they always become ridiculous. However, I think a legal term exists for these kinds of things. The modern way does not cross Castrillo de Polvazares, a nice village. What a pity !}

_{Someone has painted yellow arrows pointing in all directions when you arrive at Santa María de Somoza, and we think that the same joker had left graffiti showing his originality, imagination and talent : « COMEME EL PENE (EREcTO)* » the « c » of « erecto » added to the original wrong word. By the looks of it, the author likes to be precise.}

_{We stop to have a snack at Cow-boy bar in El Ganso. There we greet two walkers we know and meet another pilgrim, a man of 114 Kg that started from Roncesvalles four days before we did and he swears that he will never walk the camino again. The fat man is very tired and he feels ill.}

_{When we leave El Ganso a lady tells us :}

_{I hope the Saint Apostle Saint James provides you with a safe arrival and protects you all the way to Santiago!}

_{Just at this moment a guy in a car crosses the village as if he were racing in Indianapolis. He almost runs into us.}

• _{« I hope the Apostle is listening to you, madam !, what a fucking donkey ! »}

_{We suddenly arrive at the wood and the modern path ends. We must go on walking along the road. Very few pilgrims on this stretch.}

_{We arrive at Rabanal del Camino at about eleven a.m.. Nine or ten pilgrims are waiting for the hostel to be opened (It opens at one o’clock). Paca and I go to the Hostal El Refugio, just opposite the church. Who said that there is not a vacant bed to be found along the whole camino ?. We are finding beds everywhere up until now not only in pilgrims’ hostels but also in inns, hostals and hotels.}