Today, I followed the same plan, and was surprised when I saw the time. I was up, dressed, packed, and ready to leave by 5:55 AM! While the early start is nice to beat the heat, the downside to this is the sun still won’t rise for another 45 minutes. Still, I left Hospital de Orbigo with only the moon lighting the path.

The big attraction today was the town of Astorga. While the population is not that large (12,000), there is a lot of history there. There were Roman ruins, monuments to the Peninsular War with Napoleon, and a sizable museum of church relics. My biggest disappointment was that I could not find the Chocolate museum, as this town was the center of Spanish chocolate production. Two other guys did find it, and it sounded slightly classier than Hershey’s Chocolate World.

While it was tempting to stay the night in Astorga, I wanted to take a little more mileage off before tomorrow. I’m about to enter the mountains again. While the climb will not be nearly as daunting as the Pyrenees, it’s the first big climb since Pamplona. Equally important, it’s the first big descent since Pamplona as well.

While the albergue here in Santa Catalina is a little crowded, I know or have ran into everyone in my room. I had a chance to get to know a few people better while hanging out this afternoon.

Right now, it looks like 8-9 days left until Santiago. 250 km to go!