Author: Charlie

The whole week before Easter is celebrated in Spain. We timed our trip to miss Easter since it makes traveling hard because everything is full. Each town makes a poster for it. Here are two that we have seen so far. We will post other ones as we find them.

I have so much respect for the ancient engineers and workmen who designed and built these old machines using basic tools. A simple but effective labor saving device. The most complicated part is the screw, an inclined plane.

This made me think of the classic I Love Lucy episode where she is crushing grapes by stomping on them with her bare feet.

We love our rain skirts. They are lighter and quicker on and off than rain pants. Plus we look very stylish in them 😉 We ran into someone on an earlier Camino who made hers from a big black garbage bag. We purchased ours.

Just before Astorga, near the end of our 11.1 mile walk that day, pilgrims (many of whom walked much further than us) encounter what some call the “green giant” and others call the “pilgrim torture bridge”. It seems to be the only way to get across the train tracks since a fence prevents crossing by foot. It would be fun if we weren’t so ready to be done walking at that point! Wynette was not thrilled to have to spend the 5 minutes it took zigzagging across this crazy contraption. It seems excessively high, but at least we were glad we weren’t electrocuted on the overhead electric train rail.

Right after this we had to climb several hundred very steep feet into Astorga’s center. More pilgrim torture. (But at least our hotel had an elevator.)

All the guidebooks about Astorga talk about how you have to try their famous stew Cocida Maragaro. The thing about it is that they make the stew but serve it in three courses. First the meat is served. Usually there are at least seven kinds of meat. Some are mostly or all fat.

Then the vegetables, garbanzos and cabbage and a potato.

Finally a soup with the broth and fidelo. No photo. It tasted very fatty from all the meat.

I hate to be a spoilsport but I didn’t like it very much. But everyone else raves about it. Astorga has two restaurants that specialize in it and only serve a few other things a la carte.

We had a previous post about special washers for pet garments. Here they are not allowed.

There is some kind of issue between the province of Leon and the region of Castilla y Leon. For a long stretch every Camino sign had ”Castilla y” blacked out or whited out. They missed a few. Here is one whited out and one as they are originally.

A bit of ”long lonesome highway” feel here but we still enjoyed the walking.

There is an old story that a popular Silicon Valley engineer interview question is ”Why are manhole covers round?” My answer is that they aren’t on the Camino. Maybe a case of form not following function or style over function.

We have already seen dozens of storks on our walk. I guess this is the right time of year and the right place for them. They are still building their nests. We saw one bringing a stick for the nest and placing it. They will be laying eggs soon. One source said you start seeing the young ones in mid May. We see them over the fields in the morning. I suppose they are finding food there and fattening themselves so they can take care of the young ones. We will add some of our photos and videos after this.