Day 26

At the end of a 18-ish mile day today, us weary pilgrims were surprised with a strange apparatus on the horizon just before Astorga. Standing three stories tall, it kind of looked like a bright green parking garage without any walls. As we got closer, we could see there were two of them, and that the yellow arrows meant the structure was obviously put there for us, to get pilgrims from one side of the railroad tracks to the other. Up one ramp we went and then across its bridge and then down the other ramp, all of us kind of dazed with the weirdness of it. It was just such a BIG thing and there was so much walking involved just to cross over a space that was maybe 8 lanes wide. We all wore internationally recognizable “what the heck was that” expressions as we looked back at it.

I write all this not to complain about the crazy ramp Astorga built for its pilgrims but because the Camino is 500 miles long and goes through several major cities, and this is the first time any of us has noticed a piece of infrastructure that was over the top or added time to our journey. We have hardly paid any attention all the pedestrian ramps, bridges, and special sidewalks on the Camino because they are just so seamless. Spain has obviously put a LOT of time and money into making the path safe for pilgrims.

I heard later that this overly-designed monstrosity we had to use to get into Astorga is referred to in the Camino world as the “pilgrim torture tower.”

Thanks for keeping us safe, Spain! And having a sense of humor about it, apparently :-)