Following my solitary drink last night, I ended up eating with, and having a really enjoyable evening with a couple of German ladies, Sonia and Nina and a couple who are friends in Minesota, Carla and Arron. We were all sleeping in the same dorm, in what was a very nice, Zen like albergue, joss sticks, low lights and quiet  

For the first time, I left when it was still totally dark, and my head torch was not working very well. I  then took a wrong turn and walked more than a kilometre the wrong way, before deciding I needed to check where I was. No yellow arrows and no pellegrinos means something is wrong.  Eventually i got back in the right track , probably adding almost 3km to my total for the day (39km). I Bumped into my dinner companions again when I stopped for breakfast, then set off for Astorga. 

I do very little research in advance, so each day, and evening is largely a surprise. It was yet a other beautiful day, and the Mesita was giving way to the mountains. Before going down into the valley to what turned out to be the very lovely town of Astorga, I came across Jose Halleluja, who was playing guitar and singing to the pellegrinos. 

Astorga, as said, was a nice surprise, a beautiful town, with lovely squares, which deserved a rather early beer stop.

Leaving the town, I came across Stephan from Germany and we walked together for the rest of the afternoon, which is a first, as I prefer to walk alone. 

After a couple if hours I realised Stephan was a Lutheren Pastor, who likes to walk some of the Camino each year. 

We walked here to Santa Catalina and are staying in this rather basic, but very lively albergue which is stuffed with a plethora of nationalities,  from Taiwanese, to Columbian, American, and most European countries. I have a small basic room  tonight, €20, but dropped my pack here at 5 PM and have only just returned at 10 PM. Lutheran pastors enjoy a few beers. 

However the biggest thing today,  was the change from the Meseta, to a much greener mountainous landscape, and the change in the character of the villages and towns to being more lively, attractive and probably more affluent after the rather obvious poverty of much of the mesita.

Tomorrow brings the climb upto the highest point on the Camino, 1515m, so time for some sleep. Very poor signal, so I shall post pictures tomorrow, I took so many today