Camino Day 25: Villar de Mazarife - Astorga (04/04/17)

I woke refreshed; I had actually slept very well for a change, with no sinus problems or headaches! The walk from Mazarife to Astorga took 8 hours and 40 minutes, but that was partly because we were wandering along and taking our time as usual. Our original plan had been to only walk to Hospital de Órbigo, but we found that when we got there, we still felt fresh and decided to walk on to Astorga.

Felt arch support

The first section to Villavante was hard – the path was straight, stony and monotonous and my left foot was still really hurting due to arch strain from the excessive pronation. At Villavante however, we had second breakfast and I constructed a felt arch support that I taped underneath the insole of my walking shoe. This did the trick and the pain in my foot quickly settled down and I no further problems for the rest of the trip.

David drying his socks near Villavante!

We had a pleasant walk to Hospital de Órbigo, stopping occasionally, to watch foraging Storks, who were following the tractors ploughing in nearby fields in just the same way that Gulls do in Ireland.

The bridge at Hospital de Orbigo

At Hospital we paused to admire the bridge; the longest and best preserved medieval bridge in Spain according to John Brierley. Built in the 13^th century on earlier Roman foundations, it is famous as the site of a famous jousting tournament that lasted from July 10^th – August  9th1434 and which has given the bridge it’s nickname – el Passo Honroso. A noble knight from León, Don Suero de Quiñones, who had been spurned by a noble lady, declared himself imprisoned by his love for her and calling on St. James as his witness, vowed to break 300 lances as a ransom to escape from his ‘prison’. Knights came from all over Europe to take up his challenge and afterwards Don Suero travelled to Santiago and offered a gold bracelet belonging to the lady in thanksgiving which has become associated with the collar that adorns the reliquary bust of St. James in Santiago cathedral.

Monument to Don Suero on the bridge

The bridge was also the site of battles between the Visigoths and Swabians in 452 and later, when Alfonso III ‘The Great’ confronted the Moors in about 900.

Apart from the bridge, the town of Hospital turned out to be smaller than I had expected, so we walked on and had lunch in a bar at Santibanez de Valdeiglesia. On the way, we met two middle aged Belgian ladies who were starting their Camino at Hospital and fell into conversation with them.

The last section to Astorga was very beautiful with gently rolling hills covered in woodland, open fields and vineyards. We saw beautiful yellow butterflies and spotted a large green lizard and the snow-capped Montes de León could be seen in the distance.

Cruceiro Santo Toribo with Astorga in the background

Eventually, we reached the hill on which stands the stone Cruceiro Santo Toribo and looked down on the small city of Astorga. The stone cross marks the site where Bishop Toribio of Astorga is said to have shaken the dust from his sandals in the 5^th century as he looked back at the city for the last time when he was forced to leave his diocese.

Astorga turned out to be a beautiful little city nestled within it’s ancient city walls. It is the capital of the Maragato region – the Maragatos being a distinct ethnic group with their own customs, language and traditional dress, who in the past made their living by guiding pilgrims through the dangerous Montes de León.

San Javier

We made our way into the old city through the Puerta Sol and along the narrow streets to Albergue San Javier, close to the cathedral – a evocative converted traditional 3 storey house, with creaky timber floors, stairs and beamed ceilings that had a pervading smell of wood smoke, which was permeating through the house from a wood burning stove on the ground floor. The Fire Officer in David was not impressed with the fire safety aspects of the accommodation, but as usual the Pilgrim in David came to the fore and these concerns were put to one side!

Cathedral viewed from San Javier

After showering and laundry we briefly explored the city. We admired the beautifully ornate Baroque façade of the cathedral, its’ features being highlighted in the evening sun and wandered through the old city, stopping to admire some Roman mosaics in an excavated Roman house that is on view near Plaza San Francisco. 

Roman mosaic

Nearby in the building adjoining the church, a religious Confraternity were busy organising their pasos or religious floats for the forthcoming Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions. Each paso was highly ornate with life-size holy statues showing tableaus of scenes such as the crucifixion or the descent from the cross. The organisers kindly invited us in and allowed us to examine the pasos at close quarters.

One of the pasos

The day finished off with dinner in a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor, where we met the two English ladies we had talked to at Mazarife and we were also joined by an Austrian female pilgrim. I had pulpo – octopus stew, as a starter. Well we were nearly in Galicia, so it had to be done and I did enjoy it!

Pulpo!

Camino Day 24: León – Villar de Mazarife (03/04/17)

After a lovely breakfast in the Parador, it was time to cast aside soft living aside and return to the life of the pilgrim! The statue at the base of the cross outside San Marcos seemed to be gazing back longingly at the luxury we were leaving, but we bade him farewell and crossing the 16^th stone bridge over the rio Bernesga, made our way out of León through industrial zones and rather ugly suburbs.

Last look at San Marcos

I had woken up at 4am again with very bad sinuses and a pressure-related headache so I stopped off at a pharmacy in Trabajo del Camino to buy Pseudoephedrine and Ibuprofen (I noticed that you get a bigger dose of 300mg of the latter per tablet than the 200mg in Ireland – but that suited me as my sinus headaches had been unpleasant!). Nearby was the little chapel of Santiago, which seemed to me a little island of peace beside the busy road, so I stopped off briefly to pray and enjoyed the silence with one other pilgrim.

Industrial suburbs at Trabajo del Camino

There was a slow and steepish climb out of the city past some residential apartment blocks and some more old bodegas, which seemed marooned amongst the modern urban sprawl, until we crested at the site of another old ruined cross which gave a view back over the city but was surrounded by rubbish and detritus.

Chapel of Santiago at Trabajo

We reached the suburb of La Virgin del Camino; really the last part of León’s conurbation and stopped for second breakfast in a trendy little café that seemed to be frequented by an interesting mix of locals and business people looking at laptops or discussing sheaves of documents.

Bodegas

David went off to buy some provisions for a picnic lunch and I spent a long time in the wonderful modern church of La Virgen del Camino in contemplative prayer. Although built in 1961, the church is on the site of an earlier 16^th sanctuary, where according to tradition, a shepherd saw a vision of the Virgin, who told him to throw a stone and build a church on the spot where it fell. The church has huge bronze statues of the 12 apostles on its façade and a surprising richly gilded baroque high altar from the earlier church, set in an alcove of natural stone, which somehow didn’t seem at dissonance with the clean lines of the modernist architecture and managed to provide a focal point, in which at the centre of the altar, is illuminated the statue the of Virgen del Camino herself which became a focus for pilgrimage.

Church of La Virgen del Camino

As previously mentioned in this blog, I am not a great fan of holy statues, but some are special, and worth contemplation, like the ‘Y’ crucifix that I discussed at Puente la Reina. The Virgen del Camino was one of those. It is a pieta; the dead Christ lies sprawled sideways, half hanging off Mary’s lap. This is rendered in a most unusual way and there is the sense of the dead weight of Christ’s corpse and that Mary can hardly hold onto him for much longer and that any moment, he is going to fall off her knees and slide to the ground. As I gazed at this statue I felt the Lord reminding me how he wants us to fully put our entire weight on him and not try and hold onto to other things. He can take our full weight; our sins, our cares, our anxieties.

Local with Harris Hawk

David returned from shopping and we sat a while longer enjoying the peace and serenity of the place.

Picnic near Oncina

We reached the end of the urban sprawl and decided to take the optional route to Mazarife. There has been local rivalry between supporters of this, modern route, which takes you out through quieter, open countryside (which is why we chose it) and the traditional route which runs to Villadangos del Paramo on a senda alongside the N-120 road. Obviously, the residents of Mazarife are keen to promote this new alternative route, as it brings them business from pilgrims travelling through their town, but the residents of Villadangos are worried that pilgrims will stay away from the busy N-120, as we did and they will lose the business. There were therefore, many rival graffiti messages (with accompanying arrows) sprayed on the tarmac such as “VILLAR DE MAZIRIFE” or “CAMINO ORIGINAL”. Well, I try to follow the original Camino route (whatever that is anyway!) where possible, but I wasn’t walking approximately 25km alongside the N-120 to Hospital de Orbigo just for historical accuracy, so we turned off towards Mazarife!

Modern Campanile

Just as we did so, we met a local guy coming back from the open fields where he had been out flying his Harris Hawk and he stopped to let us examine and stroke the magnificent bird of prey. It was good to be out of the city and back into the open countryside and to hear Cuckoos and Skylarks. As we walked I realised that I missed Matthew’s company on the road and his eye for spotting birds of prey. He and Heather were now travelling back to Bilbao, however we exchanged many texts during the day, which was encouraging.

Landscape after Chozas

Beyond Oncina, we stopped for our picnic and then had coffee at Chozas de Abajo where we fell into conversation with two middle aged ladies from Southern England (one of whom had an Irish husband). We also noted the interesting modern pyramidal steel campanile beside the church. We later saw more of these as we continued walking; they are obviously a stylish must-have local ecclesiastical addition to any church!

Doorway in Mazarife

I found the last section into Mazarife hard going, as my left foot was now hurting under the longitudinal arch, due to excessive pronation. We checked into the Albergue San Antonio, which was very nice. A family run business it was modern, clean and friendly. We were able to get our washing done and there was an excellent communal meal of paella which we enjoyed while talking to pilgrims of various nationalities including the English ladies that we had met earlier in Chozas.

Mazarife

My own foot problems seemed nothing compared with a young German woman who was also in our dormitory who had started the Camino at León that morning and whose feet were already in ribbons. I doubted she would be able to continue. 

Communal Meal at Albergue San Antonio