15 - 16th May 2024 San Martin del Camino to Astorga plus rest day

It was a pretty horrible night for me as I think the egg from the salad at the truck stop may have been a little suspect.  The night was spent in the bathroom with a bad case of vomiting, but thankfully, no diarrhoea.  Very little sleep had by me.

Steve woke up and suggested we take a taxi today to Astorga but, not being a martyr or anything like that, I knew that missing the wonderful entry to Hospital de Orbigo would be disappointing for him, so I chose to walk.  The sun was shining, and it looked like a beautiful, fresh morning so the motivation was there to continue.  Everything packed we headed downstairs and Steve had our, almost traditional, toast with jam before we headed off down the track.

We came through a couple of small towns, the entire time within 50m of the road and the profusion of red poppies was amazing along most of the route.  All of a sudden the spire for the church just before the bridge appeared and we were there.  It was a blustery, windy day and quite cool, but we wandered around the entrance of the bridge just to get the best camera angles.

The wonderful stone bridge has a very interesting history – it was built in the 13th-century, is 200 meters long and boasts twenty arches, most of which rest on bare ground as the Orbigo River has been dammed and the volume of water has decreased dramatically.  It is believed the bridge survives as a result of the legend of Don Suero de Quiñones.

The knight Don Suero had unrequited love for Lady Leonor and decided, as a way of releasing himself from this spell, that he would wear an iron collar for a day every week to show he was a “prisoner of love.”  He found this wasn’t enough to get over his feelings so in 1434 he announced that he would joust any knight brave enough to fight him on the long bridge of Hospital del Órbigo. When he won 300 lances, he said, he would remove his collar and be free of his affliction. This became known as the tournament of the Honorable Passage.

He didn’t do this alone though – he had nine close friends who helped him.  The contests started, and since 1434 was a Jacobean holy year, there were many nobles passing through. Those who did not want to fight had to throw a glove on the ground and cross the river rather than use the bridge.  Eventually Don Suero was announced as the winner – it is believed that 300 lances had not been broken but the annual cattle drive was due to start, and they didn’t want that interfered with. His collar was removed, and he was sent on a pilgrimage to Santiago where the jewelled collar was presented to the Cathedral.  It is still there in the museum of the Cathedral apparently.

History also says that 81 years later a book was inspired by these feats of Don Quiñones. The book was Don Quixote and it was written by Miguel de Cervantes.

We crossed the bridge and stopped in the little café there for a break before heading off to the pharmacy.  We had just come out when there was a religious procession where a figure of Jesus was being taken through the streets and down to the local church.  It was all rather solemn with a crowd walking behind it.  We reached the edge of town where there is another choice to make and a man riding a bike came up behind us but this bike had a passenger!  His passenger, riding in a little cart behind him was a golden retriever!  The man stopped to talk to us and we admired his dog but the dog just wanted to keep going and was patting the man on his back and then barked at him.  We all laughed and he said he had better get back to work!

The next small town was Villares de Orbigo and there were a lot of smells of cows and maybe some pig farms – not very pleasant I might add – before we continued on to Santibanez de Valdeiglesias.  This is quite a small town but the murals showed crushing of grapes which was quite an interesting idea as we hadn’t seen grape vines for a while – it was mainly wheat and barley. 

On we went until we got to the best donativo on the Camino – just an incredible place of harmony and giving.  While there was a whole table of fruit, cups of coffee, biscuits, cake, crackers etc it was the vibe of relaxation and deep fulfillment that comes across.  We had a biscuit and relaxed on the lounge chairs for a while as the sun decided to peek just a little on this otherwise cool day. 

Onwards we headed, getting closer to Astorga by the step before we came to the outskirts where we took the platform ladder up and over the train line and came to the long line of Maragato warehouses that line the last kilometre of the approach.

Once around the roundabout it was up again, quite steeply at the end of the day for me as it had been a long day on very little sleep and very little food as my stomach was still not happy.  Coming around the bend just before the Roman villa remains on the right I saw the elderly gentleman who had played the guitar up on the hill six years ago as I was coming down.  I used Google translate to let him know about this and he said he doesn’t go up the hill anymore but was very happy that I remembered him.  We said our goodbyes and we wandered over to the Roman ruins (Domus del Mosaico del Oso y los Pájaros).  It is amazing to think that this is so well preserved.

On we headed, up through Plaza Major, to find our accommodation.  The same owner was there and I let her know that I had stayed there 6 years ago and she just gave me a hug which was lovely.  I was so exhausted, I just crept under the blankets and slept for a few hours.

Thank goodness I felt a lot better the next day as they had one of the best breakfasts last time I was here and today wasn’t any different.  We wandered out to have a look after breakfast and headed down to the base of the town walls where Napoleon’s forces had besieged the town way back in 1810 as a part of the Peninsular War. It didn’t appear to be going well on either side until the French guns arrived and a hole was made in the wall that led to the city falling shortly after that with the French overpowering the Spanish garrison on 22 April 1810 after the siege started on 21 March 1810.  There is an amazing mural painted on the side of one of the buildings commemorating this event and even a very touching plaque near the cathedral that translates as this:

In Memoriam

The City Council and the town of Astorga

To the Rioplatense soldiers of the Buenos Aires Battalion of the Spanish army of Galicia with gratitude and glory. To those who watered with their sweat and blood the land of Spain and the walls of Astorga.  For their freedom and independence during the Napoleonic Years (1810-1814). 

 We wandered around and ended up in one of the stores buying Astorgan dark chocolate but weren’t tempted by some of the other delicious offerings (maybe as my stomach still wasn’t back to normal).

We had a quiet dinner in our room after grabbing a few supplies from the local supermarket and heating them up in the microwave in the kitchen next to us.  We were so thankful to have this as we have had to either have a room picnic or go out to eat and we really just didn’t feel like it today.