After partying it up for Jenni's half birthday (Thanks for this new holiday Brian...), well when I say partying I mean making tuna salad, drinking 0.89€ bottle of wine, and touring the city Jenni and I awoke promptly at 4:30 and started our days trek in the dark streets of Astorga.
There was something different here then every other city that we passed through at this hour. Instead of the quiet streets that echoed of a party the night before we found that the streets here were still very much alive and that echo was actually the echo of a party still in progress.
It started with an ambulance and squad cars on a corner with their lights flickering in the otherwise dark streets. Then as we passed we saw all the young Spaniards still enjoying the nights celebration. We've walked through plenty of empty towns where the only noise is the whistling in your head the iconic tune from "The Good the Bad and the Ugly". If you are paranoid the empty towns during the day could be described as looking like every vampire movie you ever watched where the vampires sleep during the day leaving a deserted town. At night everything changes. The sun gets lower in the sky and the temperature drops. This is when the towns come alive. On special celebrations such as a weekend or a saints day the partying continues into the next morning when the sun comes back up.
After smiling at the situation Jenni and I went ahead. This city was kind to pilgrims leaving in the early hours. The way was marked with little orange lights on the street. This made it easy for us to navigate the medieval labyrinth of the city streets and alleyways.
Today Jenni and I decided that today we were going to go one village past where "Uncle John" (the author of our guide book) said we should stop. This would put us 1.5 miles from the Cruce de Ferro. We figured we would have a good chance at seeing it during the morning light. We both had picked a rock that we felt spoke to us about Clif and Grandma Jane a few days earlier and had been carrying them with us to leave at the cross at the top of the hill. Traditionally pilgrims leave a stone from home or a message for a loved one here amongst all the tokens left by millions of others before. It is a way to reconnect with the purpose of your journey.
The walk today was mostly uphill and without a doubt let us know we were not in the meseta anymore. The fields disappeared to be replaced with mountain grazing land. The wheat replaced by cows and sheep and the dirt road by a mountain trail. The views became more spectacular with each step upwards.
We arrived to the town we wanted to stay in early in the afternoon. The town was nearly deserted a few years earlier but had found new life in the Camino. All around the stone buildings were crumbling with caved in roofs and collapsed walls. The only intact buildings seemed to be the three albergues and the mercado. The town was vintage to say the least.
Jenni and I sat at the mercado on the bench looking at the parish hostile across the street that was to be our home for the night. The temperature outside was not scalding hot as the meseta would have been at this time of day. We sat there and Jenni jokingly asked, "you wanna sleep outside?" She should have known not to toy with me like that because I immediately responded with yes.
We decided we should sleep at the Cruce de Ferro. The weather looked good so we went inside the mercado for supplies. A tomato, onion, chips, bread, jamon, salchichon, and last but not least a plastic bottle of sangria. We were hungry after only eating a bowl of the most delicious gazpacho ever in a little town 3 hours earlier so we made one sandwich that we shared with the white and brown spotted village dog that wouldn't stop looking at us with its puppy dog eyes.
James was in this town and stopped over to visit. He very observantly told us to look at the sky. The clouds were getting dark and formed large columns in the sky. The merchant at the store stated the it may or may not rain so it was up to me to make the call.
I decided that we should move on and camp and that the storm would miss us. After all Jenni proclaimed that today was my day to be right. So we packed up and started to walk. I had a feeling there would be a shelter on the top if the hill so I wasn't too worried if I was wrong.
We made it to the cross in time to watch many cars stopping to look at the mountain of messages left at the base. There was a shelter and picnic area. We sat down and made another sandwich for dinner. The storm was getting closer so everyone cleared out leaving Jenni, me, and a biker. The biker boasted of his hotel room he had for the night and wished us a good night before taking off.
We set up our beds on the benches in the shelter just in time for the hail to start coming down. We used the rain to clean up and get ready for bed afterwards we settled in to our sleeping bags to watch the storm The sun doesn't set until 10 at night but before we realized it the storm was over and the stars were out.
