2nd stage: Hospital de Orbigo - Astorga (18 km)

The first of two consecutive short distances after the first very long walk on the day before. We had to wake up very early, cause the Chief of the hostel wanted us to leave at 8 o'clock. The evening before he didn't seem to be pleased as well of so many pilgrims spending the night at his little hostel in the off-season. It was a cool morning but a beautiful sunny day. Furthermore the route was even less monotonous as the day before with small hills, nice views and no asphalt roads. We walked by 5 and I had a long and interesting conversation with the nice French guy, Pascal, about our professions, our reasons of walking and about European cultures in general. By the way, he made the photo of the rest of us, so it's a pity I've got no picture of him. When he had to take a break and wanted to play something on his little ukulele, I moved on and reached Astorga together with the other 3 guys (Hong San, Fran and Jeordi) to take a room together in a small but very neat pilgrim's hostel. After check in we went for lunch and sight seeing. The roman Astorga has a lot of interesting and impressive places like the Bishop's palace by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi, the Cathedral or the chocolate factory. In the evening we had another dinner in a nice restaurant. I couldn't imagine before I started the journey, but actually beside the last day before arriving in Santiago, every single evening I spend in native spanish restaurants.

Apropos: The following night was the most restless of all nights on the Camino. There was a German guy in the room snoring very loud and a french cyclist in the bed above mine leaving the room every two hours while using the ladder very rude.