day 45 – draft Friday, 20 October 2017 Astorga to Ponferrada

day 45  – draft
Friday, 20 October 2017
Astorga to Ponferrada
53 km today - 574 km on Camino Frances – 1,309 km from Le Puy - 210 to Santiago

I rise about 07h in my hotel room and go to breakfast.  I decide I am feeling better but uncertain of how I will feel later in the day or the next.  I decide to bus ahead to Ponferrada and see how the day develops.

By 10h I am at the Cathedral for Mass and before 11h at the nearby Bishops Palace to wander around.  The principal architect was Anton Gaudi (of Barcelona) and I cannot understand the man taking on this commission.  Astorga itself has a population of 12,000 now and the surrounding area does not seem prosperous (but that is just my impression).  The building itself is magnificent but as a home and diocesan office, literally, out of this world.  During my visit I learn no bishop ever resided there, and no wonder.  But both outside and in it is a work of art and long may it be maintained.  Inside I cannot discern a shape, until I see a plan: in essence it is a cross which each arm of equal length and aerial photos bear this out in the roof line.  But that is not what you see inside. 

Just after 12h I am at the Estacion Autobus buying my ticket and by just after 14h I am in the cafe at Ponferrada checking out accommodation.  The trip itself is through very hilly country with both the N-120 (now the N-VI but the distances are a continuation from Logrono) and the A-6 (motorway) jostling for space and a railway creeping around the hills with a long tunnel: Astorga is about 870 metres above sea-level (ASL) and Ponferrada about 550 metres ASL  I find this trip quite exhiliarating. 

My first choice is complete (full up) but the reception rings another close by and ‘they are waiting for me’.  On checking in I give my British / EU passport.  The owner is concerned about an Englander, but when I indicate my kilt and say Ecosse / Scottish he is all smiles.  I lie down for a while and then go walkabout.  For a population of around 70,000 (think Palmerston North) the town seems quite compact.  But like all Spanish cities it is multi-story apartment living.  I find the Estacion Tren (pronounced train) and it is almost bereft of live.  But the departures board show around seven services over the six hours remaining this day, including one to Barcelona, right across the country.

I return and have another lie down, returning to the restaurant about 21h for a Menu del dia selection.  Nothing is written down so we work through the options using a translate service on my tablet: success.

In my room I email a friend of Cathy’s who had walked from Saint-Jean to Santiago in September 2011 and ask her counsel.

And so to bed