April 25, 2025, Hospital de Orbigo
- joevellutini
- Apr 25
- 5 min read
My stay in Leon was more than expected, when I was there 2 years ago recovering for a couple of days I didn’t get out of my hotel much. My one day here was great. I walked to my hotel that was a great choice, had a really good leisurely lunch, toured the cathedral and went back to enjoy my room before bed. I was not able to get a room in Villarreal de Mazarife, so I had to choose Hospital de Orbigo, the full day would have been 23 miles which is outside my current comfort zone. I changed up a couple things to make this a manageable day. For the first time I used a donkey service. This means that I had a delivery company pick up my large backpack and deliver it for me to my hotel in Hospital, this did require that I purchase a small day pack to use last night. Second, I used a taxi to pick me up at my hotel and drive me to the town of Virgin del Camino. Lastly I realized that at Villavante I should use a taxi again to get me to the next town of Hospital de Orbigo due to the approaching rain. I still walked almost 16 miles even with the help that will probably cost me a decade in purgatory. Two years ago I would have probably not allowed the help, but I have change my attitude one getting help when needed on the Camino.
The street below my balcony was quiet this morning, my cab drove me out of the industrial part of Leon and up the hill to Virgin del Camino. I had my driver drop off at a bus stop and I got my pack on to strike out on the Camino. I walked a few blocks and needed to cross the street, while waiting on the lights, I turned around and saw the facade of a church that I had seen in my guide bookany times before, Basilica de la Virgin del Camino, it has a very modern facade. I was surprised just to happen to turn around and have it be there, otherwise I would have walked on by.
I crossed the road and continued on.
In a very short time I needed to make a choice between to ways to lead me to Hospital, I choose the southern route and it was to be less time on the side of a road. For the most part it was a long day of walking through rural farm land.
At times the route markings would be small so I had to pay attention.
Not long on the trail and an Italian woman by the name of Hellen caught up with me. Today was her first day of walking, she had started in Leon and taken the bus to Virgin. We walked together for the next 12 miles. As a new pilgrim she had a lot of questions, so we had plenty to talk about.
We had a large group of bicyclists come up on us using their electric bikes, hmmm.
We continued on to Chozas de Abajo, there were detour signs to a small bar for food and refreshments. I has a Russian salad l, think potato salad with tuna, and a coffee con leche, the woman gave me a slice of a something like a cold French toast, I believe it to me an Easter time desert. I had this yesterday at lunch, I mistook it for a fried piece of anglefood cake, I think unlike French toast it doesn’t have egg in the batter.
When making a stop at a place like this it is common to see others that have passed you earlier, at a table was a German by the name of Leon and another young woman he had met while walking, we would see them walking through out the day.
We passed huge fields of yellow flowers that were part of the plant for making rape seed oil. I stopped because I could hear a humming coming from the flowers, they were covered with bees that could be heard from the roadside. I have never experienced something like this, how many thousands of bees do you need to hear them at work on the flowers in a huge open field. Later on we passed a pond that was full of croaking frogs. I took a video so that you could hear them.
Somehow we had walked for hours, but due to an error in Camino markers it only looked to me 1.1 kilometer, Helen noticed the short distance.
We found a couple of benches with shade so it was time for a little break from walking, farm equipment was busy passing by, some of the larger pieces of equipment seemed to be so close when passing, this isn’t one of the big ones.
It was a couple of small towns off in the distance before we got to Villavante where we stopped and I knew I needed to decide if I was stopping for the day or walking the rest of the way. I asked the woman behind the bar if a taxi was a possibility and she said she would call when I was ready. While back out front drinking my beer, a huge gust of wind came through and knocked over peoples belongings, I took that as my sign to get a ride, not to mention that I could see rain coming, and as it happened a taxi just showed up without being called. Helen was walking to the same destination as me, but she wanted to walk the entire way. We wished each other Bien Camino, I am fairly sure I will see her again. Two years ago an Italian woman helped me get to Ronceavalles, maybe this was my day to pay it back.
Now I am in my new hotel for the night, it overlooks a long gothic style bridge into town, below it is an old jousting field.
So far I am the only person in the restaurant, but it’s 7:30 in Spain, what do you expect. The owner speaks a tiny amount of English, but he has sold me an opener of 3 langostino, and a veal steak. The langostino where awesome could have just eaten 6 of those, but totally messy to break down.
I know I should go walk around the city, but it’s 8:40 and I am ready for sleep.
Tomorrow is a shorter walk into Astorga where I will be staying for 2 nights.
