Day 22: Villadangos del Páramo to Astorga

I left at about 6:30am this morning, and I suspect M&K weren't far behind. While we are staying in the same town tonight, we are in different albergues, about 0.5km apart

Anyone for a walk through the 'snow"?
It looks pretty on the ground early in the morning, but the pollen is a pain when it is blowing around - I took to wearing sunglasses yesterday evening just to keep it from irritating my eyes

Walking on paths beside the road resumed almost as normal, although can you spot what's different today?
Yes, the path is on the right not the left of the road

The first real interest was in the towns of Puente de Órbigo and Hospital de Órbigo (one is on each side of the river, appropriately named rio Órbigo). There was a water tower on the way in and an old (church?) tower both with storks...
... and a magnificent 13th century bridge with 20 arches across the river
And the bridge brings us to another legend, another story of unrequited love. A 15th century knight, Don Suero, demonstrated his broken heart by wearing an iron collar every Thursday (a 'prisoner of love', but I wonder why only on Thursdays), and blocked the bridge (all week) by challenging all knights who tried to cross to a joust

After he (with possible help from his friends) succeeded in winning 200 jousts, the king had had enough, so declared Don Suero the winner, and sent him far, far away (to Santiago!). The story became one of the inspirations for Don Quixote [to be fair, I think this bit is even more legendary than the rest]

Continuing through and out of the village, I was welcomed by a cat lady...
...a pot-plant garden...
...and trees planted perfectly in line
Proof that new houses do exist on Spain:
I don't know what this guy was doing
We then hit the hills, stony road up and stony road down...
...with only occasional relief
The snowy mountains were getting closer each step...
...but I did finally make it into Astorga...
... past the dragon...
... over the railway line...
... past the 'house next to the railway line'...
... round the corner...
...to my lovely albergue
After the usual clothes washing, I headed up into the town proper
Plenty of specialist chocolate shops - Astorga is famous for them
I did go into Palacio Episcopal, or what appears to now be called Gaudi's Palace. It is one of only three works by Gaudí located outside of Cataloni
Anyway, it's not the bishop's house any more - it's now a museum

Comments

  1. The McPsMay 14, 2026 at 9:57 PM

    How do you find out so much info along the way? There's a nice light in these photos.
    And a wifely question - are you taking your antihistamines?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. allanmMay 15, 2026 at 4:37 PM

      Some text or QR code at the site + some data from the Camino apps is enough to start Googling. M&K much better at looking up info than I am

      Delete
  2. NicolaMay 15, 2026 at 9:41 PM

    Cracker story today ... took on qualities of 'going on a bearhunt'.

    ReplyDelete

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