Super duper long day. This was our longest walking day at about 35km . Left 550am and arrived at our Albergue (across town) in Villafranco del Bierzo at 2:30pm. I was relaxing after breakfast for the photo today.
It rained most of the walk today. I don't think we will get much more sunshine anymore. I like the overcast cooler temps but once the rain starts it just becomes a chore. We passed by a medieval templar castle that was quite stunning. It was a little too dark to get a photo. Ponferrada is another bigger city and with the bicycle race we were happy to get through it early! They rerouted the pilgrims about 1km so we didn't disturb the setup track circuit. It was frustrating.
A neat fountain in Cacabelos. I thought it was silly to be on in all this rain.
Fancy sculpture in Camponaraya.
Some fountains are obviously not good water...
Finally our entrance into Villafranco. Gorgeous town but the streets are very twisty and up and down hills. It is an easy town to get lost in. Everything is stone (even the ground) and the cars just whip around the main road.
Lastly - we walked over a road on the making. The camino road is made by laying down tons of small rocks over dir. Then rolling over it with a tractor to smooth it up and embed rock in dirt. I also learned T without rock in the dirt you get slippery mud in the rain. We passed by each road making stage - slippery dirt mud no rock, rock piled high, and tractor smushing rocks! It was a neat process but hard on the feet. Today is our last long walk. The next two days are our steepest climb and then just little 'hills' to the end! We have 8 days left of walking. Though I plan to keep the blog going until we leave Europe. Lastly I opted to not buy new shoes my feet are better and I have a spare pair of shoes in London. Also mailed out another batch of postcards been difficult to find post office etc.
You're passing thru such interesting history!!! The buildings are really fantastic looking. And for us not in the rain, the fountain that was going looked fabulous!! At least they post signs that tell you when the water is not drinkable! You did have a l o n g day! Usually you finish about 12:30. BUT YOU ARE ALMOST AT THE END. I imagine you will be happy and sad at the same time. But on to different adventures!!! Ant L
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