Alija del Infantado to La Baneza

After a not so long and partially anxious sleep, I am awaken with the help of the alarm. It is pitch dark outside and silent as the tomb inside. The light is switched on, and in this tall room with the windows placed so high one feels really like being in a prison. That pulls the urge to escape as soon as possible. A modest breakfast was left from the tenant and his wife and one have to appreciate that. Slowly putting the equipment back on us and just before going out we remember the watching dog outside. It’s 7:00 AM. We have to pass by him. Yes, he should be tied up yet… Fortunately the passage is safe and we leave the estate. Interesting mural of a lady with the big boobies?! So unexpected in this, we though so conservative region

What a beautiful morning. Red sunlight rays break through fresh clouds. The official weather forecast was saying that it will not rain before 2 PM, and locals that we asked said “it will rain even before 9 AM“. Locals were right.

First true rain on this Camino. First real greenery around us. First real woods. Definitely we are now going throuh a different region and climate. Funny moments: I spin the small windmill acting as a scarecrow, something I was used to do as a child. Rusty sounds, that this spinning was producing, made me laught so profoundly as I was laughting as a small child. It seems Camino is liberating the child inside us?

Grey and metal heavy clouds follow us. We come to a village yet the bar was closed. Calibration pole for satellites, a device that I encounter for the first time. Didin’t know they exist at all.

Few kilometers before entering Banez rain reinforced. We easily find the Albergue in which we are almost alone, as there is just one pilgrim from Poland there. Dormitory is creepy – a room densely filled and stacked with second hand hospital beds! Like in a poor war hospital. Price for accomodation was 4 Euros per person.

Raining for a second day in a raw. Still we go for a walk in the rainy city.

Lunch at the Los Angeles. Coffee in the only bar with Wi-Fi in the town!? Good red wine Andrea Tinto from Alfayate y Alvarez. First time we see that yellow aperitif, which we will see later in Galicia, many times. Lunch was 10 Euros and coffee with Cola another 3 Euros.

Andrej bought new boots. Is this a good idea? We will find it out in the next days. Back to the albergue, now we have new colleagues: a Spaniard and that pilgrim from Poland. Rain is not stopping and the air temperature outside is as low as 13 degrees. This seems so distant from the heat of Andalusia and Extremadura. Went to sleep at 10 PM and it was a good sleep in those “hospital beds” though.

Let’s finally go to Astorga! A bits ad moment as we are leaving Via de la Plata that was so harsh, yet we felt in love with it. In the same we are happy to join the Camino Frances.

La Baneza to Astorga

A bit later departure, at 8:00 AM, since it is raining again. First part of today’s stage went pretty well. Again we had the same disturbance of not finding an open bar in the first village we enter that day. The thing is that, first practical association with Camino for us is – “caffe con leche” (coffee with milk).

Of course, no bars open in the first village we come in. Passing over the iron bridge.

It is still raining. Roman bridge.

Andrej enters for the third time this city and is fulfilled with positive energy. I’m kind of worried because of all the signs showing that we joined the “snobbish” Camino. It was very difficult to find accomodation in Astorga and this was making me mad. I’m a little bit lost. In the end, we found our place in the old Albergue de Peregrinos San Javier. The price was 8 Euros per person. Andrej went to “occupy” beds while I was waiting in line to register. That’s a good tactic. Finally I laid down, took some Paracetamol pain killers and rested. In a dormitory woth other fifty smelly pilgrims! We went for a late lunch at a restaurant nearby fro 16.10 Euros. Today’s red wine Abadia del Roble, from Bodegas Ayuso Villarrobledo.

The afternoon was spent there, in this huge dormitory room, listening slow and silent murmur. The guy in the adhering bed, behind my head, is eating some salad. I can smell the vinegar. I turn around to see. He is not eating salad, that smell is coming out of his socks! Some Americans are showing off. I put an Arabic tv station at full sound on my smartphone. Their mouths are now shut down. It was a Christian Mass in Arabic but they are just too ignorant so the trick did it. I had a nice afternoon sleep. Later, after nine PM all the lights are turned off the light so one tries to get asleep as soon as possible. I managed to do so after some time so I avoided listening people snoring. Apparently during the night few were snoring like crazy, and apparently I was the loudest.