We are in Astorga tonight after walking our longest day of the Camino. The official walk today was 31 km (about 18.5 miles). After walking around town to see the sights today we have logged amost 35 km! According to my pedometer we have done over 55,000 steps. My WW friends will appreciate that according to the pedometer I have earned 22 activity points today (and the pedometer does not know that I have been walking up and down hills and that I was carrying at 15 lb. pack!) In any case, we are doing very well but we are very tired. I know we will both sleep well tonight -- we could have the worst snorer in the world next to us and I don´t think we would know it!
For the past two weeks (since Burgos) we have been walking through a high plateau area. The first part of which is known as the meseta. It was an agricultural area with (surprise) lots of mesas. It was beautiful. Then we entered an area known as the tierra del campos. This too was beautiful but was a bit like walking across Nebraska. Its actually hard to walk when there is no geographic diversity. Plus the walking trails in this section tended to be packed gravel or paved. Today we started back into the mountains and we are so glad to be back in the hills.
Two days ago we were in Leon. It was an absolutely beautiful city and the Cathedral was luminous. We really enjoyed it. We treated ourselves to a hotel which happened to have a water spa, so we spent 90 minutes in the spa pool, jacuzzi, sauna and hot beds. It was a great treat.
We have met many wonderful people on the Camino from an unbelievable number of countries. So far we have met folks from Vietnam, Aruba, Panama, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Ireland, Austraila Hungary, the US, Canada and of course, Spain. Yesterday we met another Idahoan -- a student at BSU who is thinking about law school (Gee can I get my camino expenses reimbursed if I do a little student recruiting while walking ? Hmmm.....).
We met a guy from russia who has lost 75 kilos of weight (more than me) and the two of us really enjoyed talking about our weight loss experiences. Two of our favorite pilgrims are two young americans with a great story. They walked the camino in 2009 and met during their walk. After returning to the states they corresponded (he was in Indiana and she was in Texas). He decided to move to Texas so they could date two years ago. They will be married on May 17, two days after they finish walking the Camino!
I will tell you some more great Camino stories when I am a bit less tired. For now, I will sign off with
Buenos Noches,
Liz
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