Across the plain to Astorga

There is something about a town on a hill, especially if you have to approach it from a distance and beware of the sharp divide between you and it. Best visit Cafe Oasis for a quick strengthener first. It is LGBTQ+ friendly, gets 4.6 stars on a 350 review basis and two days before O typed this Mark 112 gave it 4 stars for what he said was a ‘Without a doubt, the best, the 34-egg potato omelette.’ Six days before Jose Miguel reckoned it was a 5 star ‘Championship omelet’



We are following the old N-120a, the road from Leon and the one I was most familiar with. Crossing the Tuerto river you feel you are coming up to a city state. I had never been to Spain before coming to Astorga - a fact my father-in-law thought was unique. We had landed in Compostela and taken the train to Astorga. This made us fairly odd. Astorga stands above the plain, old, dominant and trying to work out where to put all the extra people and things it now needs.




A little way out the road begins to gather industry and houses. We won’t go to Divain Parfums, people have not been kind about it. We will ignore google routes and go straight on at the roundabout, a long the old road which had a level crossing which is now blocked. A yet to be reviewed footbridge - crosses the track and so we begin the ascent into Astorga







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