Don't let that name of that town fool you, no hospital involved...but it might be named after an old pilgrim hospital.
I let Father, Tom and Mary walk on without me today, they get up so early and their pace is too much for me, I love their company dearly do our plan is to meet up on the way. Oddly their pace is better than mine (or different I should say as it is not a race) but I tend to want to push on slightly more than they do. I actually have caused the men a few times to push further than they would. I knew my plan was to end up in this town tonight, I was one of the last to leave this morning. and also wanted to stay behind and do a nice copy in the city up near the cathedral. I think it was about 8:30 when I went to the cathedral hoping to sit out there and people watch some. The street cleaners are busy in the streets in the morning...and it seems I hit all of the big cities on weekends. A few of us were canvassing the streets looking for coffee and thankfully passed a hotel that had gorgeous pastry, I enjoyed my usual cafe con leche, fresh squeezed orange juice and a pastry that when I first arrived would be shared with like three people, now it is common place and I inhale the whole thing. There is a young gal who has approached me enthusiastically a few times and this morning we'd actually exchange names...she is from Ukraine and it ends up lived five kilometers from where my youngest son is from.
I headed out for a long day... all routes are well marked with yellow arrows or shells (hence my blog name) but I got confused coming into Hospital de Orbigo when arrows pointed into different directions. I am not certain but it appears that a small town not on the Camino might be wanting some business and thus has pointed arrows directing you thru their town. If this is the case it is the first time I gave seen it, but a confident walk was ripped from me in that last hours questioning what I was following. I walked thru a sleepy town questioning what all the great things I heard about this town, then before me I saw a gorgeous bridge heading into a festive little town and knew instantly it was a charming place. There were two great auberges and I would not have gone wrong in either...but I saw R from Scotland in the streets and asked him which one was the parochial one and he said he was staying there and pointed me in its direction. A charming courtyard and gentleman greeted me and showed me to the room...there were about ten beds only two people in the room (though all beds were occupied) and it was Tom and Mary!!! I was not sure they were going to go that far so I was thrilled to see them. We all went out for dinner and R joined us, and I invited any pilgrim sitting alone to come join us...a Danish man took me up on the offer, we had a great night. R is a pastor in Scotland which I did know when I first met him in Grannon, we had great conversation tonight and he is one of the people that I felt some of the strongest true Camino friendships with. I am hanging with people about fifteen years older than I am and feel at total ease in thus crowd, an educated bunch with so much interesting talk. R's wife will be joining us in Santiago and I am so thrilled to meet her . He speaks so highly about her as they now have three kiddos out of the home and they enjoy hiking and you can just see him beam when he speaks of her coming out. R is the one who I shared the story about him turning around. Because something told him to turn around one day back up thru a pile of rocks and there was a memorial to a women who had died of cancer in his hometown, a women who his wife had worked with, and a women who his wife actually got promoted to her job after her death.
Tonight's dinner conversation meant the world to me...we would eat and return to our sweet auberge. I love the company I am with dearly but I also know our walking time together is coming to an end...they walk so quickly and more importantly get up so early in the morning. I so badly need to be in my own pace, to stop for coffee when I want to but if I could meet up everynight with this crew I would be thrilled.
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