Wednesday 19 June 2013

Spectacular Astorga

We arrived today in the beautiful university town of Astorga. I will bore you later with photos on Facebook.  Astorga is like all Spanish cities it is set high on a hill. It isn't the size of a large city it is more  like a large market town. There are three main Plazas. The first one you enter, San Bartolome, is stunning, that is until you enter Plaza Modesto, and then you are confronted with Plaza Cathedral with its St. Martin Cathedral and Bishops Palace designed by Gaudi. The whole place is inspirational and spectacular. It even has its own town clock tower like the one in Prague. Later after a rest and shower we are going to explore the cafe culture.  Well to get here we had to walk. Today's walk was flat to start with but then started to climb towards Astorga. The walk today did not have the colourful scenery we have become used to nor did it have the orchestra of nature we have been hearing but it was challenging. Tomorrow we go up into the Leon mountain range where on Friday we will reach the highest point of the whole Camino, Cruz de Ferro at 1505 mts, about 5000 feet above sea level. It is therefore an early night and a very early start tomorrow.   C

On walking into Astorga we went into a church which turned out to be the Redemptorist church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.  And guess what?  The Novena starts tonight.  So that is the plan for later.  We can compare it with Clonard!  I certainly need all the help I can get to face the climbs of the next two days.  M

Dear Rory, Calum and Lucy
Granda and I are still doing our big walk in Spain. And I am sorry to say that no, we have not seen any bears in the mountains yet.  Perhaps they see my very cross face and hide behind the trees.  But we have seen lots of huge birds;  red kites, eagles, vultures and storks.  The storks build huge nests as big as your trampoline.  Granda has tried to take lots of photos to show you but storks don t really like to pose for photos.
We have seen loads of mini beasts.  When it rains there are huge black slugs, snails with very colourful shells,  millipedes, caterpillars and great big beetles.  When it is sunny there are bright green lizards and dragonflies. One night we stayed beside a lagoon which had snakes and salamanders.
We have seen the droppings of many animals but I think they only come out when all the walkers are in bed.
Soon we will be in a part of Spain called Galicia.  In Galicia everyone likes to eat octopus, they call it pulpa. Would you like to eat octopus?   Granda says he is going to have some but I would prefer a boiled egg.
We have to climb a very high mountain tomorrow and the next day and then in 2 weeks we will be home.  Grandad and I will be very excited to see you all again.
Lots of love
Granny and Granda. xxx



1 comment:

  1. Have been thinking about you both on your epic walk but especially last night, on the first day of the clonard novena and will continue to keep you in my thoughts and prayers over the next 9 days. This years theme is 'Stand firm in your faith.' Love keeping track of your progress...good luck for the rest! Ciara

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