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…
We all felt pretty good this morning after our really long day. We had a meager breakfast provided by the hotel of yogurt, and some hard bread with jam and butter. We passed the Episcopal Palace, an art museum built by Gaudí. One of only 3 Gaudí buildings outside of Catalan. Really interesting entrance. It…
We have a very long day today. 19 miles. We are also finally starting to see the mountains in the distance. Our ending spot in Astorga is just over the beginning of the foothills. We have emptied our packs as much as we can. Today will be warm, and sunny, so we don’t need to…
We’ve arrived in Villar de Mazarife and I’ve starting receiving texts from all sorts of people asking how things are going. 🤣 Yes, it’s time for an update. Our VRBO we rented in León was great. It was a 5 bedroom apartment in the middle of everything. And it came with a cat. Not inside,…
Honestly…….there really isn’t much different going on in the past few days. We didn’t take that many photos as the landscape hasn’t changed at all. It’s been mown fields, and lots of wind, and a bit chilly. The only difference are the places we are staying. Some nicer than others, and one truck stop. It…
Ain’t gonna lie. Today sucked. 22 mph headwinds, with gust up to 40 mph. Wind chill in the 30’s. 15 miles. I was not in a happy mood when we arrived. My nose ran all day on top of all that. Oh, and good old google maps had my accommodation address off by a whole…
A bit of a shorter day today that we will make longer by a kilometer, by taking the scenic route along the river, which is really a stream, just so we don’t have to walk along the highway the whole time. It was a nice path thru the trees. We had a nice breakfast with…
We had a long way to go today, 16 miles, so we started off before sunrise. We were not the only ones, though. I think there were 6 pilgrims that passed us by the time the sun had come up. We had a 500 foot hill to climb in a little under a mile with…
