One should only be allowed to tick this WHS if you’ve walked enough of the pilgrimage route to earn your Compostela certificate! That is: having walked or rode horseback at least the last 100km or cycled the last 200km. For my part, I have to admit that I haven’t reached Santiago de Compostela. Even not by car. After having visited Las Médulas in the morning, I decided that it would be too far to drive on to Santiago. So I went to Astorga instead, one of the major stops on the Route.

Astorga has two very fine works of architecture: the Episcopal Palace designed by Gaudí, and the Gothic Cathedral. Both are named specifically in the AB evaluation, so I guess it’s kosher to visit these buildings as representations of the works of faith and art that make up this WHS.

The Gaudí Palace looks like a church and now has a museum inside. The exhibition didn’t really do something for me, but it’s also a fine way to admire the architecture of the building from the inside. It was inspired by the rooms full of arches in the Mezquita of Cordoba. It has the same red/white striped pillars and stained glass windows.

I didn’t get into the Cathedral (closed), but its façade is very much worth checking out. It is extremely flashy!

I did not encounter many ‘pilgrims’ in Astorga or on the road, certainly not on foot. I do wonder however what it is like to walk this Route. It does look very hot in July/August, and there also seem to be boring parts through industrial areas. And it is far, very far: 656 km from the French border to Santiago de Compostela. Maybe I have to read a detailed first-hand account on it first before I’ll embark on this once-in-a-lifetime experience myself.