From Molinaseca

Molinaseca - Day 28

Stops since last update in León: Villar de Mazarife - Hospital de Orbigo - Astorga - Manjarín - Molinaseca

Distance walked so far: See Melide

View map of the Camino

As I arrive to update the Melide page, I find a lot left out. I was too tired to put much into it when I put it online last year. Today I am splitting it into two and adding several images. So this is not really a posting form Molinaseca but rather a convenient place to split the Melide page into two.

First a picture from a later walk along the Camino on the other side of Leon. It is of our shadow. Every morning we walk into our shadow as if we were confronting our shadow self. Then as the day progresses, the shadow moves to our right more and more until at the end of the day it is behind us and we face the sun, the source.

Every morning you walk into our shadow and shadow selves.

The atrium of the private Pilgrim hostel in Villar de Mazarife, a tiny hamlet, the first stop outside of Leon as I headed west. I spent a pleasant afternoon there doing little.

A marvelous mural also in the atrium of this refugio in Villar de Mazarife.

Puente de Orbigo, Orbigo Bridge. History says one of the last great jousting matches was held here in the late middle ages. Because his chosen woman would have nothing to do with him, a certain knight chained himself and challenged his fellow knights to a huge joust right here. In the end he won every match, over 300. But, alas, his chosen still rejected him. but he took off the chains anyway--and they are still in Santiago's cathedral.....

The camino some kilometers east Astorga.

The cathedral and priest house in Astorga, both designed by Gaudi.

Gaudi's Santiago on the Astorga priest house tower.

This sight amused me (and probably most everyone else who passes this way) as I entered El Gonzo - The Goose - a tiny village one morning. The Cowboy Bar, complete with music from the '50s and movie pictures on the walls bids you come in for a drink. The bartender was pushing "Wheeskee" though I had my usual cafe con leche.

The Camino and flowers between Rabanal del Camino and Foncabedon.

Cruz de Ferro--Iron Cross. People have been pitching rocks onto this pile of rocks on a mountain pass in the Mountains of Leon since before Roman times. The Romans consecrated the spot to Mercury to protect travelers and the Christians to Christ for the same reason. Pilgrims carry a stone across Spain and deposit it here to symbolize carrying their sins and getting rid of them here before they continue on to Santiago. Like other pilgrims, I carried my stone from the Roncesvalles area where I started.

The refugio at Manjarín in the mountains of Leon. Thomas, a self styled latter day Knights Templar, built it in an abandoned town. Though chaotic, damp, and constrained, it was quite liveable.

The inside of the refugio at Manjarín in the mountains of Leon. My bed with nap sack and my hat is against the wall below the picture of knights. Most slept in the attic.

As I left Manjarín, Thomas's signs told me how far I was from and the direction to head for several notable locations.

Acebo appeared out of the clouds in the western end of the Mountains of Leon. I had a wonderful tuna bocadillo (sandwich) here.

Tens of storks nest in the power lines around Molinaseca. Other places they take to bell towers and old chimneys. But here the power poles offered the prized nesting places.