We ate breakfast and were just finishing our last breakfast on the road, when a Brit, Emilia, with her labrador, Frankie, came in the restaurant. We spent some time chatting with her. She and Frankie also started in Roncesvalles. I asked about how difficult it must have been finding places to stay. She said she…

Who woulda thought that I would have said, “Meh, it’s only 13 miles. No big deal.” Not me, that’s for sure. But….it was easy peasy lemon squeezy. We only stopped once to get another jolt of coffee around 10. Well, we stopped briefly at noon to grab a sello (stamp) for our pilgrim passport. It’s…

We started out at 7:30 this morning. The idea was to find a breakfast place as we walked thru town since we were at the edge. Not one thing was open. Bill said he was very disappointed in Palas de Reí. Evidently dinner last night was not great either. That has been the worst part…

The sunrise isn’t until 8:45am. Which is really weird for me. Living in Costa Rica, I’m used to the sun coming out at 5am. We have been leaving, or trying to leave, at 8am every day. Today it was 8:07 or so. It was dark. Bill finally got his headlamp out when we hit the…

Brrr. It was a little chilly this morning when we started out. But, we had a proper breakfast….with eggs…so we felt strong, despite the news from the night before. For the most part it was a nice day. Lots of cows again. I really wish we could include the smells along the way. 🤣😂 Not…

I did not sleep well last night. I had a glass of ‘house’ wine with ‘dinner’ and it messed with my sinuses. That happens periodically with some wines. I ended up taking, what I thought was, an allergy pill. Nope. It was cold medicine. I could definitely breathe, but I now couldn’t sleep. According to…

We didn’t get started this morning until 9:30. We had a leisurely breakfast and then I starting working on some things for my husband, and missed getting my one BIG bag to the Correos. But, Bruce ran downstairs and thankfully the Correo truck was still there and I was able to get my bag to…

We spend a very enjoyable day in Villafranca being toured around the city by one of Bruce’s colleagues from the European Space Agency, retired. He’s lived in Villafranca for 35 years or so, and it was a great history lesson. We had a nice lunch in the main square and as I was looking around,…

We made a decision last night, along with Silvia, to skip the urban hiking thru the beginning of Ponferada and take a taxi. It would have been a 19 mile day, and we were still wiped out from the hell of yesterday. So, we did just that, and had the taxi drop us off in…

Today starts the climb up and over the mountain pass. From our current altitude at around 3500 feet up to around 5000 feet and then all the way down to 2000 feet. We had a beautiful climb starting right before sunrise. A few people started before us, and a few people started after us. Including…