Walked today: 2.6 mi. Camino’26: 172 mi.
Today’s plan includes only short walking distances, but allows us to advance along the camino another 32 km (20 miles) via autobus.
Our bus is scheduled to depart at 11:30 this morning. After placing our backpacks (for transport) at the apartment pickup point at 8:00, we did a short reconnaissance walk near our apartment and found the usual breakfast choices closed on this Sunday morning.
Consequently, we returned to our apartment and decided to exit with our remaining belongings and walk to the bus station, planning to stop along the way for breakfast. (As a rule when we’re constrained by a schedule, we try to shift possible unforeseen delays to near the destination with respect to time and distance).
We walked the same route into Leon and to our apartment that we traveled yesterday, only in reverse.
Looking for a place for breakfast along the way, we were not surprised to find everything closed on this Sunday morning.
We finally stopped at… you guessed it? Cafe Duma just a few steps from the bus station.
Once at Cafe Duma we decided to hang out in the comfortable terrace for our 2+hour wait rather than at the bus station. So we relaxed and literally “ate away” the next 90 minutes.
We walked the final steps and found a seat at the bus station. Our bus, as usual, was on time so we settled in for the final 45 minute wait to “move on down the camino”.
As it turned out, the horse made it to the barn but never made it to our stall! Without going into the gruesome details, while we were trying to get on the wrong bus, our bus pulled out of the loading dock and left without us!
All our best made plans went downhill from there. The next bus required another 90 minute wait, with no assurance a seat would be available for both of us. So we gave up and walked outside to summon a taxi. A couple of minutes later we were on our way to Hospital de Órbigo in our 55€ taxi ride with 2, now worthless 4.30€ bus tickets in a trash can on the way out of the bus station.
Our taxi driver was pleasant enough, as best we could tell, as he spoke only just enough English to get us to our destination.
It took us a few minutes to get re-oriented to Hospital de Órbigo, since our last time to walk through the village was in 2019. Since then, we have walked an alternate route to avoid the village.
We found our albergue and expected to be checked in immediately. It was 12:50 and the check-in time was 12:00, but the note on the very securely locked door said check in time today was 1:00!
Meanwhile, it was 93F, but Linda found a shady bench in a park a few hundred yards away, with a breeze. It served as our command point until we understood our options and reestablished some level of control.
Jim walked back to the albergue as the door was opened at 1:20 and checked in. He was informed that the albergue only offered a vegan meal at 7:00 p.m.with an uncertain menu… (to go along with its rather rustic ambiance and state of repair). We decided to spare the depressing photos of this 70€/night property.
Sensing more downside, and before retrieving Linda from the bench, Jim further discovered that only 2 restaurants were serving food today and both were fully booked with local family reservations, it being Sunday afternoon.
So, Jim pleaded with the first restaurant for any seating we could use and was totally rejected. We went to the other restaurant that was just beginning to open and the owner said they had no lunch menu. Jim asked “What do you have?” to which he responded by handing Jim an a-la-carte menu. We immediately asked for a table and found a single table for two on the porch and sat down and within 5 minutes a waiter took our order.
Our meal was delicious and became our first positive experience in this crummy little excuse for a village that could do a much better job of supporting pilgrims walking the camino.
We walked back to our room just as our backpacks arrived, did our chores and made our plans to walk to Astorga in the morning before the 95F heat settles in.
Today was interesting, but on balance still a good day on the Camino Frances and was made extra special by Father’s Day greetings received via text this afternoon as Jim worked on today’s post.
Our wifi is very weak and intermittent, so if photos don’t make it or other distortions occur on your emailed version, apologies are offered in advance and a good version will ultimately be available on jimandi.blog.
Jimandi 