9/12/10 Leon, Astorga, Leon, Burgos

Another great breakfast at the hotel before heading on the bus to Astorga.  Astorga was about 45 minutes away and it followed El Camino de Santiago.  From the bus window, I could see lots of backpackers.  We were told that most of them had left from Leon that morning and were headed for Astorgas.  The symbol of the walk is a shell, so the people who are walking the path tie a shell to their backpack.  The two main buildings in Astorga were the Cathedral and el Palacio de Gaudi.  Gaudi designed the building, which includes architectural styles from all periods of history.  We went in the Palacio, which is now a museum.  Then we walked around the Cathedral.  Morgan and I went into the cathedral.   In the front part of the cathedral which was roped off, they were holding the Sunday morning service.  Although the building was quite old, they were pretty up to date and had flat screen TVs to watch the service from the back half of the building.  Tourists were allowed to walk around the back half of the building despite the service.

Palacio de Gaudi behind Roman walls

Cathedral

 

Another interesting event was occurring in Astorga when we were there.  There was a huge parade with groups of people dressed in matching shirts.  Each group had a really tall flag that they carried with a holster on a special belt.  The person who held the flag often swaggered back and forth, because it was so difficult to balance the tall, heavy flag.  Every so often, they would pass off the flag to another person in the group and sometimes it would fall because they couldn’t balance it.  Bagpipe music was played during the march.

            We left Astorga and returned to Leon for lunch.  Astorga was much smaller than Leon, so it would have been difficult to find a place to eat there, especially on a Sunday when everything closes.  We found a sketchy place for lunch, which was fairly cheap, but it took forever to get our meals.  I ordered a bocadillo con jamon.  Emily and I got gelado just before getting back on the bus!  There are gelato stores on every corner and it is so hard to resist the temptation of eating it.  It was a hot day though and was a nice and refreshing.  The bus left for Buros around 4:30.

            We got to Burgos and I went with a bunch of people to a park near a stream to play Frisbee.  I didn’t end up playing, because it was really windy, and I would have thrown it into the raging stream if I had tried.  Instead I sat with Anuche and Ruchee on the side of the park watching everyone else.  A couple was also sitting near us and they had a dog.  Ruchee started talking to them and ended up taking the leash from them to walk the dog.  The kids playing Frisbee played keep away from the dog for a while, but then Ruchee just sat near us with the dog.  As it got darker, we decided to try and find a place for dinner that was inexpensive.  We ended up walking to a pizza place Telepizza, which was gross.  I’d compare it to Domino’s Pizza.  I went to bed early after that (midnight), trying to make up for my lost sleep the night before.