Stage 27: Villafranca del Bierzo to O'Cebreiro

September 20, 2018

Today's route from Villafranca del Bierzo to O'Cebreiro is one of the most challenging routes on the entire Camino Francés, rivaling that of the route over the Pyranees from St. Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles (in my mind, anyway). There were three routes to choose from today: hard, harder and hardest. We chose the hard route which was a gradual uphill climb of @ 650 feet over the course of @ 14 miles. Then, the hard part started!

Because our route today was @ 19 miles, we left Villafranca @ 6:45 am. The first 14+ miles were along the N-VI highway, but we also had the river Pereje on the other side of us, so we had more to look at than just asphalt highway. We stopped in the small town of Herrerías for lunch before heading up the challenging hill to O'Cebreiro, which is at 4,265 feet. The afternoon was hot and, although there was quite a bit of shade, we were in the sun a lot and the terrain was very rocky and littered with horse manure. For those faint-of-heart pilgrims who don't want to attempt the climb, there are horses for rent in Herrerías to take you up the hill. Needless to say, between picking our way over the rocks and around the manure and stopping to catch our breath, it took us quite a while to climb the hill! For those of you who have hiked Dog Mountain in the Columbia Gorge, it was Dog Mountain on steroids! 

O'Cebreiro is a very small town (pop. 50) with a small parish church run by a Franciscan friar. We were able to attend a pilgrim Mass tonight followed by a pilgrim blessing, after which Father gave each pilgrim a memento of our journey: a smooth rock painted with a yellow arrow, the symbol of the Camino. 

We are now 7 stages, 7 days and 96 miles from Santiago. Hard to believe we've walked almost 400 miles! Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will keep you in ours. Vaya con Dios.

Buen Camino

Leaving Villafranca in the pre-dawn morning

Herding sheep outside the village of Portela

The road to O'Cebreiro, horse manure and all

Almost to the top - only 1.5 miles to go

We are now in the region of Galicia

Group picture after we cleaned off the dust of the road

Stage 26: Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo

September 19, 2018

Today's 15-mile route from Ponferrada to Villafranca was a cake walk compared to yesterday's killer. Ponferrada is a good-sized city (pop. 69,000) and it took us quite a while to leave it and its suburbs behind. Once in the countryside again, we were walking through what I can only describe as scrubland: lots of grasses, shrubs and small trees. In the distance all around us were tree-covered hills and even some vineyards. What a difference from just a few days ago!

We're meeting new pilgrims we've never seen before: a mother and daughter on bikes who just started their journey in Ponferrada, Gerhardt from Chile who started in St. Jean on September 2nd, took a train through the wheat fields of the meseta, and is now finishing his journey to Santiago on the same timeline as us. The sad part is that I think we've lost most of the pilgrims we had gotten to know during the first part of our journey: Rio and her husband Peter from Columbus, Bob and Kevin from New Hampshire, and so many others. In fact, we met Bob and Kevin, recently retired friends who are making this journey together, the first day at the top of the Pyrenees. We left them yesterday in Molinaseca and I don't think we'll be seeing them again. They've decided to limit their mileage to 12-15 miles per day, so I think we'll be staying a good 5-10 miles ahead of them the rest of our trip.

We are now 8 stages, 8 days and only 115 miles from Santiago. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will keep you in ours. Vaya con Dios.

Buen Camino

New waymark signs near Ponferrada

Walking with Gerhardt. Tomorrow, we'll be walking up those 

mountains in the distance

An 18th century wine press

Our first glimpse of Villafranca

Stage 25: Rabanal del Camino to Ponferrada

September 18, 2018

Today was a GRUELING day and it wasn’t the uphill climbs that did us in! Because we knew we would be walking about 19 miles today, we had a very early breakfast and left our pilgrim hotel at 6:30 am. Sunrise wasn’t until @ 8:00 am so we left town with headlamps on, picking our way slowly up the rocky mountain path. By sunrise, we were at the first mountain village, Foncebadón, and shortly thereafter were at La Cruz de Ferro (the Iron Cross) at 4,940 feet (although this was only a 1,130- foot climb from Rabanal). The Iron Cross has become an important symbol of the Camino. Pilgrims stop here to leave a stone, possibly say a prayer, and reconnect with the purpose of their journey.

From the Iron Cross we descended a bit before climbing to the highest point on the Camino at 4970 feet. From there the route was straight down, @ 3,000 feet over 6.5 miles. It was very slow going as we had to pick our way around rocks and sometimes, even climb over boulders! I was sure one of us was going to trip and fall or sprain an ankle, but luckily we all made it down safely, although by the time we got to our hotel in Ponferrada our feet were VERY tired. 

Rich lanced the blood blister on the ball of his foot, but his feet are still very tender. Needless to say, he didn’t walk again today and probably won’t be walking for the next few days. It’s just as well as those rocks and boulders on the downhill trek would have done him in!

It's hard to believe we only have 9 more stages, 9 more days and 130 more miles to Santiago. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will keep you in ours. Vaya con Dios.

Buen Camino

Sunrise in Foncebadon 

Taking a quick break before heading further up the mountain

Adding my stone at the Iron Cross

A sample of our rocky path

The Knights Templar castle in Ponferrada

Stage 24: Astorga to Rabanal del Camino

September 17, 2018

Just when I think my body has adapted to all this walking, I have a day like today where my back ached and I was dead tired by the time we reached our destination of Rabanal. I don't understand why today was so hard. The mileage was a little less than yesterday (@ 13 miles), the temperature was about the same (low 80's), and the majority of our walk was in the sun, as it was yesterday. The only difference was that we climbed a little higher than yesterday (@ 1300 feet), but nothing unusual. Whatever the reason, I was more than ready to be done by the time we reached our hotel in Rabanal.

The town of Rabanal sits part way up Monte Irago and, although quite small (@ 50), continues a centuries old tradition of caring for pilgrims before they hike the steep path up and over the mountain. One way of attending to pilgrims is via prayer and monks at the parish church of Santa Maria invited pilgrims to attend Vespers tonight, which they sang as a Gregorian chant. The church is quite small and unadorned, a simple medieval church from almost a thousand years ago. As the monks sang, I could picture a simpler pilgrim listening to the same Latin chants in the same church so many years ago. I hope it fortified them as much as I felt it fortified me for the climb over Monte Irago tomorrow. It was a beautiful service and I'm so glad we were able to attend.

We are now only 10 stages, 10 days and 149 miles from Santiago. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will you in ours. Vaya con Dios.

Buen Camino

An exterior view of Astorga's cathedral as we left town this morning

Becky and I walked this section of road in 2016 

on our way to the Iron Cross

Our first lunch on the Camino in 2016 was at 

the Cowboy Bar in El Ganso

Jerry and a falcon named Julie

The Way of the Crosses

Stage 23: Villavante to Astorga

September 16, 2018

Well, Rich has done it again! He now has a new blister - this time it's a large blood blister on the ball of his left foot. Ashley says we need to lance it, but I'm hoping it will go away by itself (I know, false hope). His feet certainly are turning out to be his Achilles heel! Needless to say, he didn't walk with us today, but instead took a taxi to Astorga and met us at our hotel there.

The scenery is definitely changing. We passed a number of corn fields and other fields planted with leafy vegetables (neither Becky nor I could figure out what it was), but very few wheat fields. A lot more trees and we are now solidly in hill country, having climbed 800+ feet today. Looking at our map, the next few days are going to be even hillier!

The flies were out with a vengeance today! These are not the type of flies we have at home. They're small things that try to fly into your eyes, nose and mouth and continually hover around your face. Becky broke off a small tree branch and used it to shoo them away. I used my walking poles as windshield wipers and that seemed to work for a while. Not sure what God's purpose was in creating these creatures. Jerry thinks they're more prevalent in the areas where there are oak trees. Once we started walking through evergreens they seemed to disappear, so he may be right.

About 6 miles into our walk, as we approached the small town of Santibanez de Valdeiglesia, we heard a faint song carried on the wind. By the time we reached the town square, the singing had stopped, but people were streaming from the small church. We had almost forgotten that today is Sunday and the song we had heard was the congregation (or choir) singing. The only way it could have carried so far must have been through an outside loudspeaker. I wonder if this is the way some Spaniards attend Mass?

We finished our 14 mile trek into Astorga @ 1:30 pm. Becky and Jerry opted to make use of the hotel's spa facilities, but I talked Rich into walking to Plaza Catedrale, which houses Gaudi's Palacio Episcopal and Astorga's Gothic cathedral (Catedrale de Santa Maria de Astorga). The Palacia Episcopal and Casa Botines (which we saw in León) are the only two Gaudi buildings outside Barcelona. Although Rich made the walk, he sat and rested his feet while I toured the cathedral.

The countdown continues: we now have only 11 more stages, 11 more days and 162 more miles to Santiago. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Buen Camino

Medieval bridge into the town of Hospital de Órbigo

Just when the flies were about to drive me crazy, I saw these beauties

One meets the strangest pilgrims along the Camino

Gaudi's Palacio Episcopal

Altarpiece in Astorga's cathedral

Stage 22: León to Villar de Mazarife

August 15, 2018

We were up early today in order to leave León by 7:00 am. It's funny how quickly Rich and I have settled into a morning Camino ritual: get dressed (after having laid clothes out the night before), fill our hydration packs with water, apply moleskin and blister bandages as needed (this is a good 15 minute ritual for Rich), slather our feet with blister cream or Vaseline, apply sunscreen, and finish packing up our suitcases and backpacks. 

The route out of León was not as scenic as the route into town, as we walked through a number of older, run down areas. It was hard to tell where León ended and the suburb towns began. Once through the town of Virgen del Camino, however, we were finally outside León  and its suburbs. From here the scenery changed to scraggly wheat fields (much more scraggly and weedy than the neatly tended fields we've been walking past over the last few days). The landscape was dotted with a lot more trees today and the terrain has now become more rolling. It's a nice change from the flatland.

After 13+ miles we arrived at our walking destination, but not our sleeping destination. We are staying at a lovely country cottage outside the town of Villavante, about 6 miles further down the Camino. We ate dinner at a long communal table with dinner served family style. Our dining companions were a Dutch grandmother named Maude, two German (?) ladies named Hilda and Marie and a couple from Connecticut named Margo and Gary. Margo and Gary are avid cyclists and have done a number of cycling vacations in the US and Europe. Needless to say, we had a lot in common.

From Villavante, we now have 12 more stages, 12 more days and 176 more miles to Santiago. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue these last few legs of our journey.

Buen Camino

Trying to navigate via streetlamp as we leave León 

Today's typical scenery

Our country cottage is a renovated mill

Exploring the grounds before dinner

View of the dining room area

Rest Day in León

September 14, 2018

First of all, Happy 74th Birthday to my wonderful husband and partner. Thank you for saying "yes" to this Camino trip. I know it wasn't on your bucket list, but knowing it was on mine, you offered to make the journey with me.

Today was our rest day in
León, but none of us got much rest. We were too busy sightseeing! First stop was a side chapel in the León Cathedral (Catedral de Santa María de León) for a 9:00 Mass and then a tour of the 13th century Gothic cathedral itself. With its 125 magnificent stained glass windows, the cathedral is awash in light and rivals its more famous counterpart, the cathedral in Chartres, France.

We also visited the Basilica of San Isidoro and Plaza San Marcos with its ancient monastery, took pictures of one of Gaudi's more famous buildings, Casa Botines, and peeked inside the courtyard of the 16th century Palacio de los Guzmanes. Later in the afternoon, Becky and I each had massages and then we headed back to San Isidoro for a pilgrim's Mass and blessing. Two Masses in one day! Can't remember the last time I did that.

At the end of Mass, Father asked all the peregrinos present to join him at the altar. There were at least 20 of us of different nationalities and cultures, speaking different languages, but all with a common purpose of making this journey to Santiago de Compostela. Father was so enthusiastic, warm and genuine, it was as if this was the first time he had blessed Camino pilgrims, although he must perform this ritual every day with scores of pilgrims. It appears he never tires of it and it seems to give him great joy, at the same time passing that joy on to all of us present.

What a wonderful inspiration to keep in mind as we begin the last legs of our Camino journey! Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Buen Camino

Exterior of Catedral de Santa María de León

A view of some of the cathedral windows

Gaudi's Casa Botines

Channeling Gaudi

Monastery of St. Mark

Even Leon is wishing Rich a Happy Birthday!