I would like to wish our American friends and relatives an enjoyable and relaxing Memorial Day.

We began the morning with a terrific breakfast buffet at the Parador hotel.  Most of what passes for breakfast in Spain usually consists of coffee and toast, perhaps a croissant.  But the Paradors all have excellent  breakfast buffets, with a full serving.

While at breakfast, we said hi to Will and Julie from Chicago.  We have run into this couple every few days along the way, and they are often staying in the same places as us.  Julie is a college professor and Will works for Intel and is taking advantage of his sabbatical.  This is one of the great Perqs in America, and offers something like 8 or 9 weeks of time off every 7 years.  Linda's brother Scott has worked for Intel over 20 years and has taken 3 sabbaticals during his time.  

We had a rather long walk of almost 20 miles today, from Leon to Hospital de Orbigo.  We had intended to walk  an "alternative " route that takes you through wilderness and is about 4 miles longer.  However, we somehow missed the fork in the path to take the other route.  We weren't the only one, and met a number of others who had the same problem.  

Instead, we ended up on a path that ran parallel to a very busy highway. All day long, all we heard was zoom, zoom, zoom as cars and trucks roared by.  So much for communing with nature.....so, the song of the day is the Band's "Endless Highway":

"You're gonna walk that endless highwayWalk that highway till you die"

Ok, perhaps that last line is a little dramatic, but the last few miles almost felt like that!

We walked most of the day with Annette from Washington State, who we have run into several times over the past few  weeks.  After lunch at a cafe along the way, Annette bought a round of a special Spanish liqueur called "cuarentaytres" (43 in English).  It was quite tasty and made the last 6 miles go faster!

Finally, we arrive at our  hotel, which is a very finally restored 17the century townhouse.  Truly a work of art.  We are looking forward to the dinner tonight, because it looks like much better faire than we usually get on the trail.

I am very excited about tomorrow.  We only have about an 8 mile walk into the town of Astorga.  We planned our itinerary so that we would have a short walk into Astorga and be able to spend an afternoon touring around.  Astorga is a very prominent ancient town of about 12,000 people, and is home to spectacular medieval buildings, as well as more modern buildings.  Of particular interest for us are a number of buildings designed by the famous Spanish architect Gaudi.  We have toured many of the buildings that Gaudi built in Barcelona, and his works are spectacular.  Many of you are probably familiar with the Segrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, which is probably his most famous work.