From San Francisco to Munich, then to Madrid, followed by a train from Madrid, brought me to León. Now to continue on the Camino Frances route, on the sections which I was not able to walk, back in September 2022.

I decided to stay in a ‘monasteria’ albergue run by nuns. I did not encounter much of a religious atmosphere, probably because I did not attend the pilgrim’s mass or any other such function. I was too busy looking at sights in León. I saw only one of the sisters, at the end of the night when the gates closed at 10:30 PM. However, the hospitelar/os/as were friendly and welcoming. And the location is great, on the quiet, historic square, quite central, in the old section of León, called the Plaza del Grano.

This albergue was the only one I stayed in that separated male and female. I had started to hope that my room would be relatively empty, but late at night some guys came crashing in and took all remaining beds. Without showering. Extreme, all-male snoring ensued, causing me to deploy all my sound defenses at various times in the night (Mack’s earplugs, AirPods). However with jet lag, that still gave me plenty of time to lie awake in the night and contemplate whether it was a good idea to begin the Camino again, and whether it would not have been a lot easier to just stay home, in my quiet and comfortable house with everything I need…

A. and C. came into the albergue also last night. Plan is to walk together as far as Sarria. Because of an injury that one person had previously sustained, it was decided to take public transport out through the suburbs of Leon. So we experienced our first Camino sunrise of the trip … from a taxi! passing freeway interchanges, warehouses, and even a Decathlon outlet.

We emerged at a place called La Virgen del Camino. I had my first of many Camino breakfasts of ‘huevos fritos’ which consists simply of two fried eggs and a slice of bread. This was a good option as it is vegetarian, with some protein.

I felt excited as we then started on the way. It began while still along the national highway, and slowly evolved from asphalt, into the commonly-encountered, broad, smooth, dirt path of the Camino in Spain.

Further on , still paralleling the highway, we came to a small store which had very a good example of the traditional Santiago cake. We met a pilgrim there, from Alabama.

The way continued, closely following a national highway. Straight and flat as the day warmed. The track finally turned away from the highway, as we neared our destination for the day in the town of Hospital de Orbigo. The scene was enlived by this section of the Camino being, and there is no other way to put it, on fire. In several patches of ground next to the path, there were fires of grass and bushes , burning vigorously.

My immediate reaction was, why is there no one around trying to put the fires out? Made note to self: what is equivalent of the 911 number to call in Spain? (I looked this up later and found that it is 112.)

The pilgrim from Alabama was there and was noticably annoyed. I could understand why when I walked through and felt the extreme heat and sparks burning me, and was choked by wafting clouds of smoke. I confess though that rather than being concerned about the camino path being put out of commission, my main worry was that I did not want my specially-selected merino wool clothing or lightweight backpack to be damaged.

Hospital de Orbigo is at the end of a long 13th century bridge, and is named for a pilgrim hospital that was once there. Now , there are some nice albergues, such as the one we stayed at, which is run by a German Camino confraternity.

The albergue had a pleasant back garden where people could meet and chat. However, the quiet peace there was occasionally broken by the appearance of a lean, heavily tanned and tatooed man with long hair, and no shirt.
He would begin furiously smoking and arguing loudly on a cell phone.
It was so loud that he did not need actually need a phone – whoever he was talking to could probably hear him anyway.

We had dinner in a restaurant nearby, with the best tinto de verano drink that I had on the journey.