Villar de Mazarife to Hospital del Orbiga

Villar de Mazarife to Hospital del Orbigo 

This was our albergue in Villar de Mazarife. The owner actually looked like this. He and his daughter served a lovely pumpkin soup from squash grown in his garden.

In Leon province lions show up in weird spots.
Pinning these two down for a photo as we were leaving Mazarife.
Canal water flow control.
Jarrod walks faster than us. Path is along the road but the road wasn't too busy.
Yahoo. 300 km to go.
The long and not winding road.
Small village of Villavante. Every year it is the home of a major bell ringing festival. There is a legend that there was a young suitor who fell in love with an Arab princess. The father approved the marriage only if the river Orbigo flowed past his house. The suitor set about to dam the river. He got the girl and future generations got an irrigation system.
I just love old walls with doors in them. What stories they could tell.
Earlier we saw the medieval shields and crests embedded in the walls. Here they are on the mail boxes.
The village church. The bell tower has changed designs.
A space ship.
Someone spent a lot of time building this wall.
Water tower? Has a storks nest on it.
Roz and a ninja. Jarrod wears dark clothes and has a black backpack so when he stops and waits for us sometimes I don't see him until the last minute. Here we have arrived at Puente de Orbiga. 
This is one of the longest and best preserved medieval bridges dating from the 13 century and built over an earlier Roman Bridge. It has been the trade route since Roman times, including cattle, thus called the Camino de la Canada and not to mention sweaty pilgrims.
There is a legend with this bridge too. A noble knight from Leon, Don Suero de Quinines was scorned by a beautiful lady. He threw down the gauntlet to defend the bridge and his honour against any knight who came. Knights from all over Europe came and took up the challenge. He successfully defended the bridge for a month at which time the required 300 lances had been broken. He then proceeded to Santiago to give thanks for freedom from his bonds of love and his honour now restored. Talk about falling hard.
Of course it would go without saying that this is a medieval festival town. To the left you can see under the bridge no water flows but the green space has jousting stands.
It is a long bumpy bridge. I know I walked back and forth across it 5 times. Once to go the pharmacy as I now had a blister on the bottom of my foot and needed some help. Once for dinner and then again when we left town.
Tomorrow we head for Astorga.








Comments

  1. TerryOctober 20, 2024 at 9:43 PM

    OMG, I didn't know Jarrod was joining you. How awesome! Story telling and pictures are so entertaining. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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