Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga

May 31- Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga
We stayed at a funny little albergue last night called the Karl Leister Parroquial Albergue. It was cold but it has a certain atmosphere with a huge mural on the wall. We were in a room  with 5 or 6 bunk beds and although we all eeded extra lankets to keep warm, they were available and I think everyone had a good sleep- at least I did. There was one funny thing just before I went to sleep. We were all settling in and one person fell asleep before the rest of us and started snoring really loudly. I sat up to grab some tissue to stuff into my ears at the same time as 3 other people also sat up and reached into their backpacks for earplugs. It looked so funny to see everyone pop up at once that we all had a little laugh and rolled over to go to sleep.
What a beautiful walk today! We finally got off the pavement and off the flatness and headed into small hills. The scenery was beautiful farmland mixed with vacant but flowering fields. Some fields were freshly planted, some were freshly prepared and ready to plants and the wheat fields are all maturing and almost ready to harvest. The grape vines are leafing out and bushes are flowering in yyellow and white. Incidentally, I think I've figured out why everyone is so happy eating so much bread in this part of the world. The wheat fields are generously mixed with poppies and it would be impossible to harvest one without the other. Perhaps that adds a little extra spice to the bread?

This was one of those days when we seemed to bar hop from one spot to the next. (Remember that a bar is also a cafe in Spain:)) we walked 2.2 kilometers and had a cafe con leche and a panini... I know, wrong country, but it was good. Then we walked another couple of kilometers and stopped for an orange. After heading up the hill for 6 or 8 kilometers we suddenly ran into a rather strange but lovely man who lives up on the plain and had about ten kinds of juice, coffee, water, fresh pineapple and watermelon and a bunch of other stuff. He calls his place the Casa de los Dioses - the house of the gods and welcomes everyone to their house.  "Come in, this is your house, take what you want, where are you from etc. etc. He seems very happy to see everyone and everyone seems happy to see him. And his watermelon was cold and delicious and just perfect at that time. He leaves a little box out for donations but never asks for one. We stopped for awhile, ate some watermelon and fresh pineapple, drank some water, left our donations and walked on eventually coming to a spot that was just 3 kilometers from Astorga and a perfect spot for lunch. After a beautiful salad and a bocadillo with eggs, I had enough food for the day and wouldn't need dinner.

The last 3 kilometres into Astorga is a killer as it goes on and on and up over a huge walkway to cross the train tracks and up and up on the pavement but eventually we got to our albergue and cleaned up.
We went to the Catholic mass tonight as this town has a group of cloistered nuns that seem to specialize in singing. They were tearjerkingly beautiful as is the church itself.
Astorga is an interesting city as it has a chocolate museum, a Gaudi museum and apparently still uses the basics of a sewage system that was put in place by the Romans. in addition the cathedral is a wonderfully i tricate and beautiful building and, of course, it has all the assets and stores of a modern city.