To Hospital de Orbigo

September 27

Today was a shorter day (10 miles) to Hospital de Orbigo, a place we only walked through five years ago, and a town with a fabulous medieval bridge that Alan couldn’t wait to see again.

The bridge is one of the longest and best preserved medieval bridges in Spain and is one of the most famous landmarks along the Camino. It is known for a legendary jousting tournament.

In the year 1434, a knight from Leon (Don Suero de Quinones) was scorned by the woman he loved. As a result, he challenged any knight who dared to pass over the bridge to a jousting battle. Knights from all over Europe took up the challenge and Don Suero successfully defended the bridge for a month until he had broken the 300 lances he had pledged to use in its defense. Thus, he retained his honor, although it doesn’t appear that the lady changed her mind. He later travelled on to Santiago to give thanks for his newly restored honor. There are indications that Cervantes may have used this story as inspiration for his character, Don Quixote.

The Great Parts of Today

1. The AMAZING sunrise!
2. The birds chirping this morning
3. Meeting Anna from Russia
4. Alan seeing the bridge again
5. Running into Candi as she entered town and then joining her for dinner.
6. We have comfortable beds. 🛏️

Tomorrow, we walk to Astorga. 🙂Read more