After much verbal abuse from my sister, I have decided to leave the beautiful albergue and bring you, dear reader, on down the Camino.
On a more serious not, I am flattered and humbled that people have read my blog on this Camino and are interested in how it unfolds. The initial reasons for the pause in updating this was simply the lack of internet access. I guess inertia explains the rest. However, dear reader, we must walk on.
Hospital de Orbigo is a small community west of Leon. Its salient feature is its bridge over the Orbigo river. It is a beautiful and very long bridge It is the site of what was likely the last great jousting match in all of Europe. In 1434, a knight, Don Suero de Quiniones, pledged his love to a woman who, regrettably did not reciprocate. He had an iron collar fashioned and had it fastened around his neck as a sign that he was bound to her. He swore he would not remove it until he had broken 300 lances (defeated 300 challengers) on the bridge. Knights poured in from all over Europe and all that summer, he met them, fully armoured, on the bridge of Orbigo. And, he defeated them. Once he had met his challenge, he made his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. There, he had the collar cut off and, for many years, it rested around the neck of the statue of St. James. Today, it is in the cathedral museum next door. This event has been thought by some to be Miguel Cervantes' inspiration for the literary character Don Quixote in his great novel The Man of La Mancha.As I mentioned in yesterdays blog, while I was on the bridge, soaking all of this up, who should appear but Carina Jacobi, the Swedish woman I crossed the Pyrenees with. It was great to see her and we spent an enjoyable time catching up and had a delightful lunch. I have decided to stay here. The albergue is a very beautiful building that used to be the chapter house of the knights of the Order of Saint John. She has decided to go on to Astorga but we had a very nice lunch. She made an interesting comment during lunch: "We are on the camino to meet ourselves and to have a conversation with ourselves ...... and to listen to ourselves."
Later in the afternoon, I met Jacques from Trois Rivieres, a German priest named Fr. Winfrid and a fellow Torontonian - Joe Porcelet. We had a great dinner together. Went to bed and slept well.
