Initially let me make comment about the afore-mentioned 7.30pm dinner at Molina Galoches as served by the magnificent Mercedes.
It was like being in a movie. Or a dream. You know the scene at 'Under the Tuscan Sun' at the end where the lady's friends are all sitting there together sharing a meal, or the one in 'The Way' at the beginning when Tom walks into the albergue and the guy says, 'We've been expecting you' and they all sit around arguing about Charlemagne. It was just one of those unexpected perfect meal moments.
The meal was served inside the renovated mill, below us flowed the cool clean water, a glass section in the floor let you see it rushing by. Mercedes brought out bread, butter, a fetta and lettuce salad drizzled with olive oil, little pieces of grilled veal, crumbed cheese balls, a large tortilla, a bottle of vino tinto, the list goes on. It was all presented on the table in front of us and we were encouraged to enjoy. Oh my goodness it was one of the best meals I have ever had. After a long hot day, the cool shady mill and the simple but beautiful food was seriously like the most perfect thing you could imagine.
We all went off to bed very happily, slept the sound sleep of the contented and woke to a breakfast that was equally wonderful. Hot percolated coffee served with hot milk, fruit, pastries, scrambled eggs and really thin pancetta. I could live there. If I lived in Europe I can tell you I would be visiting that particular B&B often. Molina Goloches in Villavante in Spain. Write it on your bucket list.
As promised we were dropped, again with the kids rolling around the back of the van, back along the Camino where we had been picked up. Not quite all hte way actually, we were spared a long straight boring bit a few kilometres long. We said our goodbyes to Mercedes, she kissed us all again and drove off leaving us alone in the Spanish countryside.
We walked for about an hour to a little town called.... Villavante. Yes, back to the place where we had stayed the night before. In fact the mill was on a little farm out of town so we had not yet been through Villavante. We had a mid morning coffee outside an albergue (pilgrim hostel) and caught up with some peregrinos that we had met the day before who were there as well. This is the lovely thing about walking along the way, you come across lots of the same people all the time. We pushed on to our destination in the heat of the day, we only had about another hour or so to walk into Hospital de Orbigo which was lucky as the day was seriously hot.
One of the fascinating things we saw on the way was the multitude of crops that were flood irrigated. All throughout the flat country we walked through there were stone or concrete aquaducts flowing along the side of the country roads. Imagine a trough about a metre or two wide and about 60cm deep but going on for kilometres, running quite rapidly with cool clear water. Coming off the main channel are smaller aquaducts about 50 cm wide. These aquaducts have steel gates on the sides that slide up to let water run into an open paddock. The paddock is full of corn or wheat and there are mud channels latticed all through it. The farmers open the gates on the aquaducts, let the water flood across the whole paddock, maybe 200 or 300 metres square distributing evenly by breaking open or blocking up dirt mounds about 30cm high. Red sticky mud like I grew up with in Dubbo, manhandled by long hoes. It is a seriously big business, we have walked for mile after mile, days now through the same sort of system. They all seem to be small landholders managing their irrigation probably the same way the Moors did 1500 years ago when they dug the channel that the Molina Galoches mill sits on.
Anyway we finally made it through this countryside to Hospital de Orbigo, it is a beautiful Spanish town that sits alongside the Rio Orbigo. On the other side of the river sits the village of Puente Orbigo (Orbigo Bridge) they are basically the same place but the locals see them as very different identities, imagine Albury Wodonga or Coolangatta Tweed Heads. But nothing like them because these joints were built a thousand years ago.
The river is spanned by a long stone bridge that was famously defended during the crusades by a knight named Don Suero de Quinones from all comers for 31 days . Something about being in love and proving his valour. Anyway they love him around here because nearly everything is names after him, pubs, hotels, streets etc.
Hospital de Orbigo was founded by the Knights Hospitalier in the Middle Ages as a hospital for pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Its a nice joint, very historical.
After we checked into our accommodation we went down to the local pool where just about everyone in town was there. It was hot. Interestingly we had to buy swimming caps to use in the pool, Zoe picked it. As we were about to get in she noticed that everyone in the pool, everyone was wearing a cap. One euro each so we got 4, who knows what other crazy european towns have the same tradition, they may come in handy.
We finished our swim, noticed that the spaniards are not real body conscious, at least the ones that use the pool that is, I have now seen some things in bikinis that will stay with me for a long time, good and bad! Anyway we went back to our hotel for dinner, it was not great but solid.
Off to bed in a very hot room that only go hotter when the airconditioner came on. We opened the windows and hoped for the best. I woke at about 3pm and it was still stinking hot in the room. Zoe was snoring loudly so at least she was getting some sleep, Monica and Harry were having the same issue in the room next door. By about 4am it began to cool and in those hours just before sun up lovely cool air flooded into our room and we slept soundly for a bit.
And that was day two on the Camino.
I shall endeavour to upload some pics after this as I now have wifi for this hotel thanks to Harry boldly asking the nice man at reception. What a brave young man wandering down and taking on such a complicated topic in Spanish!
Buen Camino Pergrinos!
Glad to hear everything is going well!
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