I write now from a lovely courtyard in the albergue Las Aguedas where we and some other pilgrims have been busy filling it with music (Shannon's uke, a guitar, and our voices)! We ended up here after a lovely day of walking in some beautiful sunny weather.
We woke up at 7:20, which is actually the latest we have slept in while on the camino as there are typically many people getting up around us. The other two pilgrims at the Albergue Villares had already gone by the time we came down for our AMERICAN BREAKFAST! Belan was nice enough to prepare us a beautiful platter of eggs, bacon, tomatoes, and cheese. We have been pining for salty breakfast for weeks and it was everything we thought it could be and more.
By the time we finished our meal and got everything together it was near 9 so we said our goodbyes to the best darn hosts we've yet to encounter on the camino and started our day, which was turning out to be a beautiful one! And lucky for us it turned out that today was mostly on dirt paths instead of gravel roads (which has really been getting us down!), through field plains mostly. The dryness combined with the sun and vegetation gives the region a feel akin to the American Southwest. So while it may be true that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, one wouldn't be able to tell from these ones!
While walking we saw a barn in the middle of a large field, right next to the camino trail. Coming off of it was a variety of makeshift tent structures and a snack cart. This was "The house of God", which we had actually heard about from a woman we met at our Alburgue from the previous night - she told us that she had set up a foundation to try and buy the place! So this was pretty neat, and to put into context from our previous travels on the Appalachian Trail it was pretty much trail magic. The trail angel who runs it lives there year round, using a wood stove for heat in the winter and providing some snacks and drinks for pilgrims. He was an amazingly positive person - it seemed that he got a lot out of his camino experiences and wants to aid others. Pretty neat. We hung out there for a half an hour or so and even took advantage of the wood stove for a few to get warmed up (some clouds had come over head for a bit at the time).
We eventually pulled into the next city/town on our path, Astorga, around 1PM. We had sort of a snack picnic for lunch in one of the main squares and then made our way for a pretty spectacular Gaudi palace that was directly adjacent to the local cathedral. From there we hiked the final five kilometers out of town to a lovely little hostel where we are now, the albergue Las Aguedas. On the way here we met a Spanish man who had a sort of cart with him (his "chariot") that he had pushed/pulled all the way from Barcelona and a German woman who had just started up in Leon. They were both very nice to chat with and it turned out they both loved music (he plays guitar and she sings). Well when we got to the hostel, friends of the guitar player literally popped out of the window in excitement (including a pilgrim we'd met a couple days before) so after some debate over whether to keep hiking or not we decided to stay. After washing our clothes (and ourselves) we had a singalong! And apparently this just delighted the woman who runs the place, because she thanked us profusely for our musical creations.
Anyways, lots of fun! We are looking forward to our journey tomorrow, perhaps we will start to ramp up our miles soon. Our feet are sore at the end of the day, but our legs are feeling pretty strong.
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