Day 24 – Leon to Hospital De Orbigo

May 30th – I leave some of my friends in Leon to continue the Camino while others are ahead of me.  Walking the path offers so many rich experiences and the people I meet plays a big part.

Walking out of Leon I think about my friend at home, Ann Marie, who started her Camino in Leon.  For the first several miles the path is in the city and outskirts with the hustle and bustle of people going to work – it’s Monday morning- and the cars zooming by with their noise and fumes.  How would I feel if this was the beginning of my Camino rather than starting in the French countryside?  Then I begin to feel like this mornings walk is so much like my Camino training walks at home when I would leave my home wearing my backpack and walk into town for groceries or to do errands.  The same asphalt roads.  The same cars and noise.  And isn’t this just like life which includes our preferred atmosphere right along with our less preferred?  Its a beautiful life and before I know it I’m seeing some countryside and my favorite bird here – the storks!

I stop at an Albergue after about 10k mostly to use the restroom but order a cup of coffee to warm myself – it’s chilly and windy today.  The Albergue is empty with all pilgrims on the path; but, the lovely lady sweeping the floors brings me not a cup of coffee – it’s a large bowl of coffee and with it a small cake which she communicates to me in Spanish is for me, no charge.  It’s just one more Camino gift of so many I have received – so many blessings.

At the next village, Villadangos Del Paramo, I see the above sign that says Santiago is 298 kilometers away.  It hardly seems possible that I’ve come so far and the days are flying by.  Today will be a 34k (21 mile) walk and it is going by quickly while I try to hold on to rah sight and sound.

I arrive at Hospital De Orbigo by crossing the most interesting bridge makes me feel like a medieval pilgrim.  According to my Brierley guide it is one of the longest and best preserved medieval bridges in Spain dating from the  13th century and built over an earlier Roman bridge which formed one of the great historical landmarks on the Camino and with its accompanying legend may have been the inspiration for Cervantes Don Quixote.

This bridge along with yet another stork sighting makes for another beautiful day on the Camino.