Episode 8 – Leon to Villar de Mazarife and Villar to Astorga

Jeff

8 years ago

I’m now in Astorga. This is a two day catch up blog post because I got behind. I’m gonna try and not be too wordy (yeah right) cause it’s after 11:00 and I’m dead tired.

I checked out of the Parador San Marcos in Leon yesterday morning but not before their awesome breakfast buffet. I skipped a lot of what was offered because I had a 12 mile walk to Villar de Mazarife ahead of me. Weather showed it was going to be a very warm day and I didn’t want to be weighed down. But I didn’t skip the fried eggs. Fried eggs are delicious in this country. First the eggs themselves are great and they fry them in olive oil.

After breakfast I set out for Villar de Mazarife.

The walk out of Leon, like the walk into Leon, was a slog and didn’t provide much opportunity for reflection. Crowded streets and a lot of traffic for several miles after that it was very hot and dry on dirt roads all the way to VIllar.

Today Villar is a small town of less than 400 people. It reminds me of some of the small towns in Vermont which at one time we’re larger but now have very few young people or children. VIllar has a total of six kids between the ages of 6 and 10 in the elementary school and is in danger of closing.

The only accommodations in town are 3 Albergues. I was booked at the Tío Pepe which has a couple of rooms with private bath one for me (thank you Eva-pla) and room for about 30 people in a couple of dormitories.

The place is owned and run by Lorenzo and his wife Loli,

I was in Villar by noon.

In time to have a shower in my private bath and join the rest of the crowd for lunch. Loli’s albóndigas were great.

I hung around in the open patio afterwards trying to socialize a bit with all the others who were laughing and talking, playing cards and cribbage, washing clothes, singing and playing the guitar. They weren’t all youngsters but mostly. I even washed and hung up to dry my favorite blue shirt (that I had worn 4 days running) in the common area in an effort to fit in but I really didn’t.

The town has a great church modest on the outside but very beautiful on the inside. The bell tower has three huge stork nests each of which weighs 700 kg. Storks usually head back to Africa in late October after it starts to get cold but for some reason they had already left even though it was hot as blazes.

A local woman named Pillar is in charge of the church. She opens it every afternoon and loves to show people inside and tell them her favorite story about the storks.

I tried to get to bed early because the walk to Astorga is about 20 miles. I wanted to get there early because for years I have been wanting to see Gaudí’s Palace in Astorga.

Today’s walk from Villar started our nice but it got hot fast and really it was brutal. It ended up being 21 1/2 miles for me because I took a wrong turn.

There’s an option about 10 miles out where you can either walk along major Highway N 120 which is more flat or go through a town called Orbigo which has an incredible Roman bridge but then you have to go up.

I’m glad I chose option 2 because the Roman bridge was amazing.

The other cool thing is that way up in the hills about 16 miles (17.5 for me) just when you need it, theres a guy named David who has a place where he hands out free food, fruit and refreshments. Believe me I was really glad to see him.