Day 1: Astorga to Santa Catalina via the detour to Castrillo de Polvazares
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| First marker as we headed for our Albergue |
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| Gaudi Palace |
The detour brought us to a very nice hotel where we had a cafe con leche. We found that most little villages were mostly deserted. This was Saturday and still very few people were out and about.
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| Coblestoned village of Castrillo de Polvazares | | | | |
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Our detour also took us via a forest of trees uniformly planted...
and on into Santa Catalina.
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| Stork's nest...one of many we would see |
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| Almost deserted Albergue...so cold!!!! |
Day 2: Santa Catalina to Rabinal to stay at Albergue Gaucelmo run by the Con-fraternity of Saint James. This is where we met a lot of our companions for the next few days.
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| Heading towards those mountains and hoping for no snow |
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| Evidence of the pilgrims passage |
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| Gaucelmo Albergue and stories of afternoon tea with scones |
Day 3: Rabinal to Acebo...our first real "hill" climbing to 1500m. Uphill was to be the biggest challenge of my Camino
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| Leaving just before sunrise |
Every photo opportunity was a chance to rest so I took LOTS of photos.
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| Foncebadon at 1400M reminded us of a ski chalet |
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| Marjarin meeting a group of school kids on 3 day Camino to Ponferrada |
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| a more private Iron Cross |
We reached the Iron Cross and found it very crowded so we started the descent...
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| Forest fire captured our attention |
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| Our first descent was like walking on marbles. Hard to look up to see the view. |
I didn't know about that castle - thanks! The views are amazing - the walking must have been somewhat challenging to provide such vistas!
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