Hospital de orbigo

6/4/19
Up at the crack of dawn and on the road bt 5.30 am

A derelict church bell tower opposite my breakfast break stop

Breakfast doesn’t look like this at home

Leaving Leon was dark and cold, but we had two hours of walking to leave the industrial zone, and this was best done before the city woke up. Even though we had had a day off, my legs were heavy.

The facade of a modern church leaving the city

The bridge coming into Órbigo was built in the 10th century and is 300 meters long. It’s famous as the field where the PASO HONROSE, the courageous, though in these days somewhat outdated, knights and noblemen vowed with nine companions to fight every knight that came across the bridge. This still happens, since 1434, 15 days before, and after the 25th of July (the day of Santiago)  the knights would fight to free themselves of the neck fetters they wore every Thursday as a symbol of an unhappy love for a noble woman.166 knights were defeated, and Don Suero, the leader, was in his way, FreeBSD from his shackles of love
The pilgrim hospice here was founded in the 12th century, today the village is wonderfully maintained, and is dependent on the business brought through by the current pilgrims.

Bill taking in the sun outside our hostel for the night

They still perform jousting competitions on the field, we missed it by two days

The bridge into Hospital de Orbigo

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After a shower, we went into the village to eat and came across a bar that had Licor43, anyone on the road with Contiki in the early 80s will remember this staple, I forgot how it tasted, but remembered immediately I had a shot, I still don’t like it, even if it brought back many memories of the road.

Today was a bit of a boring hike but it’s part of the journey, so has its purpose I guess, the village tonight was worth the effort, and tomorrow is an easy one.