My Journey to Santiago de Compostela Part XXII
Having taken one and a half days of rest to do laundry, get a beard cut and the tattoos, I was ready to be back on my journey to Santiago de Compostela. And a long day it was. I left by myself that day because Nadine, Cynthia and Antje had decided not to spend an extra night in Leon and left the day before to Hospital de Órbigo.
After reaching Valverde de la Virgen, I bumped into Asun and Guru, my two Spanish friends. I kept walking “solo” after that and took the alternate road to Hospital de Órbigo, without realizing it was a trail four kilometers longer than the regular route. It was meant to be since I got the opportunity to help a French lady in a small town called Chozas de Abajo. She told me that she could not walk anymore because her ankle hurt too much. She spoke no Spanish so I called a taxi service out of Leon to come and pick her up to take her to the town where she had her backpack shipped from Leon. Then I met my new friend from France Stephanie with whom I walked to my next stop.
I was able to get a reservation at Hospital de Órbigo for the night at a pretty hostel called Nuestra Señora de Lourdes. The owner Doña Lola was the sweetest lady I had ever met in a hostel on the Camino. At dinner there, I met new Friends, Jane and Marilyn from Colorado, USA, François from Marseille, France and Chris from Brazil.
