Leon to Astorga

Leaving my room in Leon at 7 in the morning

I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable

January 22, 2025

Leon to San Martin del Camino – 15.8 miles

Before I left home I told Elizabeth I just wanted an adventure and Camino in the winter seemed like a good fit. Since I have walked it several times I don’t feel any pressure to conform to any unwritten rules. I do internally want to walk all the miles and not skip anything. That said I did skip the 4 mile city walk into Burgos. The cities have people and energy about them. In Burgos I stayed 2 nights and took a cab to Hornillos, so still walked the miles. In Fromista I did a similar thing by taking a cab forward and back so I could stay 2 nights in Carrion de los Condes. Being in Leon last night and having restaurants open and having a great hotel I decided to take the bus forward today and walk back to Leon. The forecast was for another rainy day, so instead of staying in a small town I came back to Leon. I bought a bus ticket online – $3.50. At 7:00 this morning I walked the mile to the bus station and got on the bus toward Astorga, getting off in Sn Martin del Camino. I love the punctuality of public transport here. At 7:59 the doors closed and we were off. I was watching a map on my phone as there were no announcements of the stops. We also did not stop at all the scheduled locations. I was hoping the driver knew to stop in San Martin, because that was where my ticket was to. Sure enough he turned the lights on, the warning a stop was coming, and I got off. 25 minutes on a bus, now, 6 hours to walk back the almost 16 miles. As I was getting off the bus, knowing rain was coming I thought to myself, I could have just stayed warm and dry in Leon for the day and take the bus here in the morning.

As I was getting started there were 12 Koreans walking on the other side of the road, all headed west together. Not too long into my walk I saw a backpack headed east. Very unusual. Soon enough I caught up to him. He is a 50 year old guy from France, near St Jean. He had walked the Camino twice the “proper” direction and now for his third walk he went to Santiago and was walking “home”. He loves the quiet of walking in the winter, and going the other direction he only talks with people at night at an albergue. He walked with his 18 year old daughter 3 years ago. He spoke fairly good English, so it was fun for both of us. We walked together for about 3 hours, including a stop for breakfast where I got my first eggs and bacon. 2 eggs, 6 pieces of bacon, a hot chocolate, coffee and 2 little ham and cheese sandwiches for France and the bill was under $10.00. France walks slower than I do and he stops often. The forecast was for heavy rains this afternoon, so I wanted to keep moving. At one point I saw Italy stopped on the other side of the road. France wanted to take a long break, so after a few minutes of chatting with Italy I continued on solo. I should see Italy tomorrow night in Astorga.

I also saw my young Korean friend that I have seen the past few days. He was on the other side of the road, so just waved to him.

Today’s route was along the original Camino and is the primary route. Elizabeth and I always take the much more scenic alternate route here. I would certainly recommend to anyone to take the alternate, even though it is 2 miles longer. We were along a busy road all day today, and a lot of sidewalks through towns. As France said, this is the original way, and is the correct path. He has also taken the alternate and agrees it is much more scenic.

On a side note. In the last post I mentioned I had an Old beef burger. I meant to follow up the translations can sometimes be funny here. Old beef doesn’t sound good, but aged beef is great.

The rains did start at 1:30 today, about an hour before I finished. No flooding rains though, so that was good. It has been a light rain all afternoon. The temperature was 48 when I started and is 49 now.

January 23, 2025

San Martin to Astorga – 15.2 miles

I repeated yesterday’s routine, leave the room a bit after 7 to walk to the bus station to catch the 8AM bus. Today I had to bring everything with me. I had bought my ticket on my phone last night. All was simple and smooth. At 8:30 I was walking west once again. For the first few miles I was again following the busy road (N120). I did chat with the two young Korean woman I saw yesterday. They do speak some English. They were excited to meet an American. Yes, they told me that. I am the first American they have met on their 3 week journey. Florida is still the only person I have met walking our direction from an English speaking country. Ireland is the only other person, and she was walking backwards.

About 4 miles in I reached the town of Hospital de Orbigo and the very cool bridge. We have staying in this town previously. I didn’t find any cafes open and debated walking .4 miles to the Dia in town. Problem was it is also .4 miles back. Oh well, just keep going. I did have a few snacks with me, so no big deal.

The path gets away from the road now and the terrain has rolling hills and trees. I went by Senior Perez’ house, but his door was closed. We have stopped here I think every year we have walked. He has pictures of he and Elizabeth on his walls and we have sent him Arizona Cardinals hats and tee shirts as he loves American Football.

Surprisingly, I have not been remembering to look for geocaches. Today when I arrived at the top of the hill looking into Astorga I remembered there was a cache here. I sort of looked last year but there were too many people around. I had the place to myself today so made a quick find. Only my second of the trip.

Florida texted me saying he met my French friend I walked with yesterday and that he says hello.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzue