Another sunny camino morning, another walk. We went to the bus station and got the early-ish bus back to San Miguel, and had breakfast there. There were several pilgrims, alone and in couples and groups, but oddly no one greeted each other or said hello or goodbye to the barstaff or buen camino when other pilgrims left. Maybe they had all just started in León but I doubt it. Something had definitely changed.
Following the road route was largely uneventful and not massively attractive, I must admit, but it was easy going and we didn’t really mind at all. We met a few slow walkers along the way who had also been struck down with camino flu and were just back on their feet. We didn’t all eat or even drink in the same places so I am still leaning towards an airborne norovirus type problem.
This is all I remember of Hospital de Órbigo – the bridge and the jousting ground below it. I like to imagine the knights and horses, the sounds and colours and excitement … in the event the little town was pretty drowsy as we walked in. After finding our room and enjoying the wonderful shower, we went out again for a pre dinner drink. The problem with small towns and hungry pilgrims will often be that you can’t find hot or substantial food when you need it most, and end up sitting around waiting for hours for them to serve a pilgrim meal at seven, or normal food even later.
And what do you know, there was our blistered Irishman again, so we went for a stroll across the bridge to find a place he seemed to remember served pizza at any time. I really couldn’t get used to this pizza diet in Spain, but hot food is hot food and I was hungry.
The place on the other side of the bridge was nice enough, no other diners though, apart from a duck that came waddling in to have a look around. Pizza was freshly made and pure heaven after a long and hot day. Then the obligatory Hospital by night photo session and back across the river for a nightcap.
This would be the last evening my Scouse Spouse spent in an unfamiliar town for now. The next day we would walk into Astorga, where we started our honeymoon camino three and a half years earlier, and though we looked forward to it, it was also the beginning of the final stage of our camino …
Somewhere Slowly 