The Fraser Way 2014: Now caught up the 2 missing days

Day 2 Leon Sept 25

After 40 km the day before it was a sleep in morning. The cathedral did not open until 9:30 so we had breakfast first, then the cathedral, quite spectacular, Blair liked it better than Burgos because it had better light more stained glass, whereas, Sharon liked Burgos better as it was larger and more grand feeling.

After the cathedral did some housekeeping errands and headed out of Leon.

Farmacia in Leon, no picking any thing for yourself but very helpful and patient!

No sunrise photo today.

Leaving Leon at the crack of noon walking by the hotel where Martin Sheen stayed in the movie "The Way".

Seemed to take forever to get out of the city and finally realized we were in the next town at which time we came to a sign that gave us an alternate route through the farmland. We had had enough cars and highways so took it and later realized that it was the "real Camino Frances" or so the sign said. In any case, we are in changing landscape again, sunflowers and bean fields, more red clay. Within the next few days we will be entering Galicia, the last province of the Camino. Ended up in Villar de Mazarife, will try to make it to Astorga tomorrow.

Friday September 26 Villar de Mazarife to Astorga

Still having WiFi problems, if they are on 3G the connection is not constant and Blogsy will not publish, so hopefully we can publish before we head up the mountain tomorrow. Sometimes the most unlikely places have the best wifi, so maybe we will be lucky tonight.

Yesterday we left late so arrived late 4:45 to Villar de Mazarife, we took the first alburgue as we entered town, turned out there were at least 6 people staying that were from the lower mainland or Victoria, sometimes it's downright embarrassing how many people from BC are walking the Camino. They were staying in the dorm with 70 people, not fun, as far a we were concerned, so we opted for 3 € more and had a room with only 8 beds. Luckily there was only another Italian couple in there so was quite nice. The food reviews were not great for this place but turned out the food was very good, nice salad, gazpacho, veggie paella, and crepes for dessert. We also opted for the breakfast for 3€ and it was great, toast, churros (yum), granola, fresh fruit including figs, cheese, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, really good orange juice, nice way to start the morning.

Started off through farmers fields, nice.

Hospital de Orbigos bridge with its 19 arches and jousting field to the left.

As we headed towards Astorga, it took us near the highway, not nice.

Just a few km out of Astorga we found this vista looking down on the city and the surrounding towns, breathtaking. A very gregarious priest has taken on this site and is planting roses and trees it will be wonderful in a few years.

Vista of Astorga from picnic site

Picnic site in progress.

We were going to take a day to see some of the sights but since the chocolate museum is closed this week :( we will be able to see the Gaudi Palace and the Cathedral in one afternoon so tomorrow we will start up the mountain, with luck we will be leaving our stones at Cruz de Ferro on Sunday.