The walk out of Ponferrada was much better than the walk in. There was a nice view of the castle and a field of red poppies providing a great foreground to an attractive bridge into the city. As we left the city limits vineyards started to appear once again.
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| Ponferrada Bridge |
Today I decided I was ready to carry my backpack again. It was nice to not hassle with making arrangements with the transport company. The albergue did not offer breakfast so we walked a little ways before we stopped at a cafe in Manjarin where we had eggs and bacon.
Today's walk was really challenging because it was nearly all on the edge of a single car width asphalt road with cars continually whizzing by. Outside of occasionally coming upon people working in their gardens, the scenery was also less than desirable. We just went from what seemed one village to another with little in between.
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| Working in Garden |
We finally arrived at a town where we could make our farmacia stop and once again try to obtain some money. The farmacia had just what we needed and even answered some questions I had about taking some medications together. Our attempt to get money was not so successful. After trying at three different ATMs and going into one bank, we finally gave up and called the number on the back of our card. It seems that for some reason, despite notifying them of our travel plans, that there had been a block put on our account. This fiasco took an hour and half out of our already challenging day.
Heading out of town after we finally got our money situation taken care of, I mentioned that I had not yet seen any butterflies today. No sooner did I say that a one flitted by! Something else to pick up our spirits - a stop at a bodega where we got a glass of wine and tapas for one and a half euros each. Pia and Avril were there to assure us it was a worthy stop.
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| House atop Vineyard |
Heading up the hill from the bodega a man was playing guitar and singing. About 5 kilometres before our destination, we had an option to continue along the road or take a longer dirt path through the vineyards. It was not a contest - we chose the path through the vineyards. It was the best part of the day with hills and hills of grape vines. At one point, there was a white house atop a hill that had two huge trees like giant statues towering over it, providing protection from the sun.
We had called and made a reservation at Albergue Piedra in our destination of Villafranca because given our earlier challenges, we weren't sure what time we would arrive and if there would be any beds still available. Although I think we would have been okay, we were still glad for the reservation because it was probably the nicest albergue we have stayed at. It wasn't fancy or anything but just really nice and clean and it had a bathroom with a stand where you could actually lay clothes down and not risk their dive onto the shower floor from peg inside the shower. Also, the albergue was built into the rock wall with portions of the wall inside the building. And all for just 5 euros each! Plus we got our clothes washed and dried for just another 5 euros. Very cool.
There were a couple of crazy girls in our room that seemed quite clueless to those around them but more amusing than annoying.
On a search for someplace to eat, we went by a church and decided we would try to get a look inside. As we approached, the priest was opening the door with a giant key. It turns out some woman had gotten herself locked inside and he was just opening it to let her out. However, we were able to get a quick look inside and it was likely my favorite church yet. It was not fancy but there were windows at the back of the church that let the natural light in and that light was shining on the altar. It was such a contrast with so many of the other churches we have been in that are dark and gloomy. This one, with it's light, seemed more reflective of the "Light of the World" - Jesus.
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| Church in Light |
Our dinner was at a restaurant next to albergue. Originally we had planned to have something other than a peregrino meal as we were getting tired of the same options but it turned out those options weren't much different than the regular menu and the peregrino menu was much less - just 11 euros got us a first course of soup, a second course of breaded steak and french fries, a dessert of ice cream and a whole bottle of wine - amazing!
Lesson of the Day: The road less traveled was the best option.
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