Hospital de Orbigo

Moving quite slowly today due to sore feet, I had a tremendous feeling
of déjà vu.

First, after breakfast at the hotel, I had to decide how to manage the
distance to Astorga. The guidebook recommends a 23km walk to Mazarife
and then a 30km day to Astorga. I don't really want to do a 30km day
until my feet are better (or never maybe).

So I decide to return to Hospital de Orbiga and then do a short day
into Astorga. Well, Hospital is 35km from central Leon but only 25km
from Virgen del Camino (an outer suburb of Leon).

This is where experience counts, I had walked those mean streets of
Leon before and had no need to repeat the experience. So a quick taxi
ride saved me 10km for the day and took me to the same modern church
in Virgen that I remembered from last year.

After surviving the scowls of two fellow peregrinos as I exited the
taxi, I hobbled off. I think they disapproved of my use of a taxi.
Slowly but surely the déjà vu set in. Gen and I hobbled this same
road last year with sore, sore feet (we had walked those ten km
through urban Leon in new boots!).

For 4.4km we had watched that water tower at San Martin appear to
never get any closer as we marched (I was sure it moved further away
if you stopped looking at it).

On reaching San Martin, I went to the same bar for refreshment, was
served by the same young ladies and used the same (still) unfinished
bathroom. Then I soldiered on for the final 7km to Hospital where I
booked into the same Hostal with it's magnificent view of the bridge.

Unfortunately, won't have the same lovely dinner as the restaurant is
closed until next spring. There are two other bar/restaurants in town
so should be OK.

From now on I will be on familiar turf, that will make things a
little easier. Constantly dealing with unknown places and an
unfamiliar language is quite ardous when alone.

Cheers
John