As lovely as yesterday's town and albergue were, sleeping was another story. We were on the upper floor of a converted house, and even though night time temperatures plummeted, there's always some genius who shuts windows and doors at night, locking in the heat. Neither of us got a great night's sleep, and as a result, we hit the road at 5:50 AM.
The first part of our morning was perhaps a taste of things to come. By the time we came downstairs, at least 20 downstairs pilgrims had left. As we were walking through the streets with head lamps on, we saw another perhaps 30 leaving another leaving another building. Where did they all come from?
The walk was just about 100% paved as we walked a little over 7 kilometers to Ponferada, a city of 69,000 that's supposed to be the capital of the Bierzo wine region. When you get to a city at 7:30 in the morning, there's not much going on. We had coffee and Spanish omelet in their main square, took the following photos, and kept walking. We came away with two impressions: (1) it's a nice enough city, and (2) it has a lot of graffiti.
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The clock tower which overlooks a street in the old town on the way to the main square
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The Basilica in the Main Square. This was our view from breakfast. There's a pilgrim's statue in the foreground.
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| This Knights Templar Castle dominates the town. It's so big, you can't fit it in the camera frame. |
We continued our walk out of Ponferada through the Western suburbs. Both on the way in and on the way out of the city, we passed by some of the most impressive mansions we've seen in this country. There's some money here!
Our hiking poles have rubber tips for when we're on pavement and metal tips for when we're on dirt and gravel. The rubber tips were on for most of the day as we walked through suburb after suburb, heading West. There was one common element in these towns: they all had an Ermita, a small hermitage, for pilgrims, and they were all very old.
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| The Ermita of San Roque |
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| Time may march on, but the vestiges of the old Camino linger. |
We stopped for the obligatory Coke in a town called Camponaraya, but didn't take any photos. There we met a bike pilgrim from New Mexico. We've seen him over the last few days, but we didn't learn his name. He did the first half of the Camino a few years ago, and is finishing it this year, keeping pace with us. He looks to be older than us, and he kept rubbing his knee as we spoke. This takes a toll on people, but not on us (knock on wood!)
We still had another 15 kilometers to go, and after the town of Cacabelos, the roads finally became less suburban, more Camino-like.
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| Stork dominating a church in Cacabelos |
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| Tina in Bierzo wine country |
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| Vineyards being replanted outside Cacabelos |
Bierzo is a region of Castilla y Leon that is surrounded by mountains. We climbed over one set to get here, and we'll go over another set tomorrow. The red wine here is made from a grape named Mencía. It's not as full bodied as a Cabernet, but it holds up to all kinds of food. It comes in usually at 14.5% alcohol. The white wine here is made from a grape named Godello. These whites are very nice, but not as tart as Albariños or Verdejos. Yes, we've been trying them every chance we get.
Our objective today is the beautiful eleventh century town of Villafranca del Bierzo. You may note that we stayed in another Villafranca earlier. When French pilgrims returning from Santiago decided to settle down instead of returning home, the towns they started were frequently called Villafranca, "French Town". There are five of these in Spain.
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| Villafranca del Bierzo |
The town straddles a river and sits at the foot of the mountains we have to cross in the morning. It is stunning. Again, it's dominated by a castle. The streets are really narrow, but that doesn't stop people from driving fast through them. There are lots of places to eat and drink. This is a destination in its own right.
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| The Castle up close. That's a tourist on the left. |
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| A pilgrim statue facing away from the town towards the bridge we have to cross in the morning. |
We got here, showered and had a fabulous lunch in a restaurant with air conditioning. Temperatures are slowly rising, with today's highs in the mid 80's. Now, that may sound yummy, but try it in the sun carrying a backpack for hours, and it gets old. Lunch was awesome. Here's a taste:
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| Roasted Pig's Knuckle (Codillo) with (the ubiquitous) French Fries |
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| We walked by this vineyard, so we had to try their wine. |
Tomorrow is going to be a challenge. We have to walk over three mountains, and the total walk will be 33.4 kilometers, including climbing 900 meters. (Multiply by 3+ for feet.) Today's walk was 31.6 Km, and we were done--with very little climbing. If we finish the route, we will be in Galicia, our last province of the Camino!
Tina will let you know how it works out.
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