Villavante to Hospital de Orbigo

This place is so beautiful and peaceful, I don’t want to leave. I am writing this sitting up in bed watching the sun rise. (NB … Hospital is the name of the next town, named after a pilgrim hospital in the Middle Ages. I don’t need an actual hospital!).

We had a most enjoyable communal dinner last night, with two Dutch women and a Chinese American man. But there were 3 more places laid and the people missing at 7.30 pm.  The phone rang and the Senora asked me to take the call as it was an American voice in a bit of a panic. They were still a mile away, she said, and one of them not feeling so good. Could a car be sent to pick them up? No problem, said the Senora, I’ll come in 5 minutes. The exhausted pilgrims arrived. They were two women walking with their priest: he was a young and fit man, originally from Southern India, with a jolly smiling face. They had walked from Leon - too far on their first day on the Camino.

View of the sunrise from my room.

My room is the one with the balcony above the front door.

Nice stamp for my Credencial.

The irrigation system is very clever. It’s gravity fed. Here the sluice gate is closed; it can be raised when needed, to irrigate the fields next to it.

The distinctive water tower near Hospital de Orbigo.

Storks nest on top.

The famous medieval bridge.

My accommodation is on the far left of the picture.

I crossed the bridge and went into my hotel on the other side. There is a really nice terrace where I had a coffee and watched groups of pilgrims arriving:

Kindergarten kids in two gypsy caravans going around the town: very excited, singing and waving.

History of the bridge and the tournament (from Wikipedia):

Tournament of 1434Edit

In 1434, the Leonese knight Suero de Quiñones held a tournament in which he or one of his companions challenged all men of equal rank who wished to cross the bridge here to a jousting tournament, Suero holding this bridge in the name of unrequited love. By 1434 the skill of jousting was not a standard part of military training but the challenge was taken seriously. Since 1434 was a Jacobean Holy Year, the traffic upon the Road of St James was considerable. The tournament lasted from July 11 until 9 August and Don Suero claimed to have broken 300 lances by the end. Twenty four years later Suero de Quiñones was killed by Gutierre de Quijada, a knight he had beaten at the 1434 tournament.^[2]

This is one of the longest bridges on the Camino: I can’t work out why it’s so long, as only the beginning part is over water.