Camino Day Twenty-Seven- Astorga to Rabanal del Camino (13.5 Miles)

Sports when you are on a nine hour differential in time zones is painful. The Mariners are in the Playoffs and Game One was 5:38 PM Sunday evening Seattle Time…….. 2:38 Am Tuesday Spain time. We planned well for this and went to bed at 8:30 PM and set the alarm for 2:30 AM. We listened to Sirius Radio to our Mariners and to our dismay the game went into extra innings….Great… and we lost. So when the game ended at 5:00 we went back to sleep until 8:15. Of course all suitcases are supposed to be down for transfer by 8:00 so we hustled them downstairs. Sports sucks in a different time zone.

We were back on the Camino by 9:15, first late start ever, and were about to have one of our most enjoyable days walking the Way. It started on the outskirts of Astorga when we found the modern church of San Pedro open for pilgrims. This was our second modern church which we found to be an equal to the ancients. The exterior design, the amazing mosaics, and the stained glass were perfect in every way.

Our next Camino miracle occurred in the town of Santa Catalina de Somoza. Here two things happened: a church and a Casa. The church in Santa Catalina is very small yet it is filled with some of the most beautiful art we have seen in all of Spain. The gentleman that maintains the church, Francisco, gave us a tour of the church. Then the second miracle occurred, he took us over to visit his Mother’s home which is located next door to Santa Maria. We then spent the next 40 minutes visiting every room in Isabella’s Casa. Every room we toured was like a museum and it was really quite special.

To say the least we were late arrivals to our hotel in Rabanal del Camino. We did have time though to visit the local church in town, truly a spiritual moment, visit a Benedictine Monk and purchase some of his wears, and still do three days of laundry in our hotel bathtub. Ahhhh, life on the Camino.