Dear Mum, family and friends,

We were about half-an-hour into a 13km stretch through a corn guard-of-honour this morning when it started to rain for a couple of hours. We donned rain-gear - a pilgrim procession of bright-coloured coats and ponchos - and continued on to Astorga.

After the corn we moved across horticultural land - hops, hay, beets, harvested beans, melons, barley - and up into the oak, pine and poplar forests again. Hills - my favourite gentle slopes - add spice and variety to our walks.

We passed through a dairy farm with penned heifers almost knee deep in mud and straw and calves in dog kennel affairs. The cows were further away in a barn. They looked few compared to our 1000+ herds - and confined.

When walking we spend a lot of time looking at the ground and today black slugs were out and about again. In the first days on the Camino the black slugs were about 6-8cms long and as fat as two fingers. Today a weightwatchers' variety shared our path.

We occasionally caught heady damp popular and the wet fennel smells. Another of our joys is to look over walls into family vegetable gardens. They're typically well-cared for large plots with fruit trees, berries, vegetables of the season and a few flowers.

The last lap into Astorga was uphill and steps and our albergue is huge and busy.  We caught up with pilgrims we met along the way but hadn't seen for a few days then "did the town".

Near our albergue is a curious "sad and sinful" museum with a collection of statues and artefacts used in Holy Week and other sad feast days. I can imagine the Redemptorist priests using them in "missions" to convince parishioners to repent. 

We found Gaudi's Bishop's Palace - an elegant building reminiscent of King Ludwig of Bavaria's Neuschwanstein Castle.

We didn't do well for dinner yesterday.  The only place with food available was a cafe-pub and food wasn't their specialty.

Love to you all.  We think of you as we walk.