October 12th, 2013

This morning we left beautiful Astorga, but never mind that city´s  plazas, architecture, and historic sites;  Astorga has got to be the candy capital of Spain!  Maybe of the whole world!  The whole city seems drenched in chocolate,  and I swear every other store is a candy store or a too-fancy-to-eat pastry shop. I was imagining that, just as people go bar-hopping on Friday and Saturday nights in other places, in Astorga people come to candy and pastry shop-hop. Astorga is one sweet city!  But somehow we were able to negotiate our way through all the sugar to find a restaurant where we had a good (have we ever had any other kind?) 10-euro meal. Tom started with a fresh, crisp salad (some are fresher and crisper than others, but this one really was!) while I had the fish soup, full or fish, clams, shrimp, even a crayfish floating around, eyes, antennae, and all!  For the next course Tom had fish baked in a sauce with a sunny-side egg on the side.  I went with the more conventional pork filet and french fries.  The ice cream for dessert was truely a cut above:  two slices of vanilla, each with a chocolate ice cream heart and each slice topped with a pecan in a chunk of milk chocolate.  A presentation even a non-chocolate-lover can admire!  The only problem with Astorga was that I didn´t see the little running man.  In every large Spanish city we´ve been in so far we´ve seen the little running man:  at many of the urban pedestrian street crossings the "walk" signal is a little green stick man with long feet and a little hat.  When it´s time to cross he starts walking with a sort of 1970´s "keep on trucking" style.  As the seconds run out he walks faster, and by the time there are only a few seconds left he´s running.  Then he turns red and stops, which means the walkers have to, too.  I love the little running man.  Anyway, when we left this morning the sun was shining but it was miserably freezing cold, and as I slogged along in my four top layers,  two pairs of pants, and wool socks over gloves, I found myself longing for the 85 degree weather of a few weeks ago.  But as the day went on it got warmer,  the layers were peeled and the scoutmaster´s wife stopped kvetching to the scoutmaster about the cold, and we made our way across  22 km´s of lovely, hiils and trees ( we´ve left behind the Meseta with it´s flat, repetitive landscape) to the town of Rabanal Del Camino.  We´re in a cute little albergue, very rustic, with a wood burning stove in the sitting room.  I know some people say they have radar, or gaydar, or whatever, but I´m thinking I must have laundry-service-dar, since I´ve been on a real roll lately!  Anyway, this place has it and this nice computer, too.  Tomorrow we´ll have to climb the highest mountain on the Camino, 5,000 feet - turns out that mountain at the beginning was only the second-highest mountain.  Everybody says this second mountain, though it´s higher than the first, is somehow easier than the first.  I´m still a little nervous about it.  But anyway tomorrow at this time I´ll be on the other side.  Or I won´t.  Keep your fingers crossed for me and stay tuned.  And may you conquer any challenges you may face today.  Love, Patti 8)