Camino Day Twenty Three

Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Ponferrada to Trabadelo
32.6 km (20 1/4 miles)

The morning sun was BRIGHT when this picture was taken! I think my eyes were closed, but the morning picture must happen, so there it is.

Castillo de los Temlparios (Templar Castle)

Ponferrada, El Bierzo, Spain

From our guidebook: "The magnificent 12th century Templar castle has been declared a national monument and recently reopened after extensive renovations. Ponferrada came under the protectorate of teh Templar Order by decree of King Fernando II in 1178. Their official presence here was short lived as the Order was outlawed in 1312 and disbanded by a Church fearful of their increasing power and esoteric tradition."

Stork in its nest

The little white specks are a bunch of storks in a field

We stopped in this winery to use their bathroom. I was very grateful!

vineyards

cherries being harvested

That is Adam, walking through the narrow, cobbled streets of Villafranca de Bierzo. The orange piece of paper you can see on the closest door was a "For sale" sign, which was posted on a majority of those doors. We talked/dreamed of coming back and owning a place there someday!

The previous three or four pictures are Villafranca de Bierzo, and I believe the next four are as well.

This is a view of Villafranca de Bierzo behind us. We hiked on through the town, past the group with which we had been walking, to make up some miles and get to Santiago in a week (and by my birthday, which is June 20th).

zooming in to that view in the previous picture

We walked out of the town and along a road. We got to a point where we had to turn, and I was very grateful we went right, because if we went left, we would have gone on the highway through a tunnel, pictured below. We were just walking on the side of a small highway instead (no tunnel, much safer, right?).

We pushed on past a couple of towns and ended up at this albergue. I'll let my journal fill you in on some details of our stay there: 

Today was Grandma Elaine's birthday. I think she would have been 91 this year. 

We did a long day today. More than 30k--I think I heard someone say 32. Although he went a different way than we did. He is a guy from Belgium (Guy is his name) who has walked from Brussels. I can't understand everything he says, but his English is pretty good and it's peppered with French, so I get that. It seemed like his life was a mess when he started (Apr. 19)--what I caught is that one or two ppl died, his wife left, someone else attempted (or succeeded at) committing suicide. He sounds like he is in a really good place now, and he wants to get a new backpack and travel the rest of the world after finishing the camino.

This Brazilian (I think) older woman came up to me while I was cooking tonight (lentil stew, again, but thankfully not pasta again--we've had pasta 3 or 4 nights in a row, and i just did not feel inspired @ all by the tiny "supermercado" here in town) and told me it smelled great. It totally made up for the old women from 2 nights ago, who got annoyed when I tried to help wash and dry dishes.

The last couple of mornings we have not left until 8:00. It actually feels too late to me. We still need to make up a day, and right now we are a little further than the "stages" in the book, so we are doing ok.

I guess you can tell that some of the other pilgrims and the food that was available (or not available) were starting to wear on me!