Today we left Astorga and headed for Rabanal del Camino.
Astorga is the head of one of the most extensive and oldest dioceses of Spain, whose jurisdiction covers half of the province of León and part of Ourense and Zamora. The Roman city was founded in 14 BC, being named by Emperor Octavian as Asturica Augusta, now known as Astorga, and became an important administrative and military centre. The walls of the town were rebuilt by Bishop Nuño around 1242 and they underwent several repairs during the Middle Ages. The Roman city had thermal baths with hot, warm, cold water systems, sauna’s and two main sewer systems that are still in use today.
As we walked out of Astorga it was nice to get back into the countryside and start to see mountains in the distance again. The Meseta (large flat plains located between the cities Burgos and Leon) was very flat and with not the most varied scenery so we were pleased to be through it. Lots of people apparently skip this portion but it is a part of the Camino Frances and needs to be experienced. We passed by the barracks of The 63rd Field Rocket Launcher Artillery Regiment which is attached to the Field Artillery Command of the Spanish Army. Although the regiment is called “rocket launchers”, currently both the regiment and the Army do not have these materials, since the Teruel system was decommissioned on December 31, 2011.
We now began what would be a steady climb throughout the day. Instead of fields of crops there were bushes, trees, hills / mountains, villages nestling amongst it all, the sun was shining and the cold wind was (for the vast majority of time) absent!
We kept on walking slowly upwards, nothing difficult and quite enjoyable. We passed through a couple of small towns with the inevitable stork’s nest on a church tower. A small finch impossibly balanced on the top of a small branch waited patiently for me to take a photograph before flying off. The last picture is of the mountains we thought we were going to have to cross tomorrow but thankfully they slid gracefully off to our side as the day went on.
As we were now closing in on our destination for the day we passed an Albergue that had setup a few large teepees in a field, I wonder how many bunks they could cram into each of those. Slowly the town of Rabanal del Camino came into view as did the mountains behind it (which we will cross tomorrow). The town itself has an old church which was very plain inside (although plainly ancient as well) – there were people praying so no photos this time.
Tonight we are sleeping at an altitude of over 1,000m for the first time this trip. Tomorrow we will peak at 1,515m as we head to Molinaseca.