Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo – 23.3km, 5.25 hours, Apartamientos el Camino, 78€

Today was a relatively easy day, certainly compared to yesterday. The trail was shorter, easier to walk on and was mostly flat-ish. There were also plenty of places to stop for breakfasts or toilet breaks. The official Camino trail into Villafranca del Bierzo now shares the same last 6km with the Camino Olvidado. Melanie and I, along with about 90% of the other pilgrims today, took the old Camino route which is less scenic but 900m shorter. Most of the others said the same thing we did, ie., “yesterday gave us the right to shortcut.”

The weather forecast for the route today was cloudy all day but without any rain. The forecasts are extremely dependable here too… if the sense that you can depend on them to be wrong 100% of the time. It was cloudy and chilly when we started walking at 7:15am but that only lasted until just before reaching Camponaraya. That’s when those black clouds that gathered above us started to spit at us. Melanie got on her poncho but I touched it out and hurried for the first cafe that was open in town. There we just had a slight breakfast #2 (#1 was in Compostilla but was uneventful) but we also used it as a chance to be dry while we put our rain gear on and for a toilet break. Before going out out again though, I double checked and it was still raining. The back pack cover went on, the phone was moved to my shirt pocket and the ponchos were added to cover everything. Finally, we steeled ourselves to go out into the cold rain… but it stopped raining after about 30 seconds. Thirty seconds after that, there was bright sunshine. I told you that we can depend on the forecast to be wrong. It actually rain briefly a couple more times the rest of the way so we got good at changing gear repeatedly.

Breakfast #3 or lunch #1 was in the lovely old section of Cacabelos, a historic Camino village. Once again, many of the houses looked to be hundreds of years old. We could live there easily. Just to make some of you jealous, we shared a delicious chorizo bocadillo (a Spanish sausage sandwich on a baguette.

Some of the people we net along the trail included Mikey who we met in Santo Domingo de las Calzadlas. We have seen him a number of times since then but he is always sitting and eating when we see him. Since he is a third our age, we know he has different priorities and needs. He actually starts his walk each day before us, he walks very fast but also he stops often for meals. That’s why we never see him walking. We also met Aussie Rebecca from a couple of weeks ago and the Dane woman who we met in Bercianos. The Dane is really nice but we don’t know here name and we only really talk while walking. She is the one who told me that Denmark’s highest mountain is only 171m but it barely beats out Singapore’s tallest mountain by 7m. The fun part is that the Danes call their highest mountain, “Sky Mountain”. That seems optimistic. We also walked with Bastine some today. It’s always a surprise when we see her because we figured she’d be in Santiago by now. She does crazy mileage.

The discovery made today was rather pleasant, I think. Our lodging tonight is a one bedroom apartment. It has a washing machine (yeah!) but not a dryer (boo!). It has a small patio outside to hang close (yeah!) but the door doesn’t lock so anyone can break in (boo!). It has a bathroom scale, the first we have seen in Spain (yeah!) but I stepped on it (uh oh!). If it has the same accuracy as the one we have at home, I’ve lost eight kilograms so far. That’s what six hours of exercise, three small breakfasts, no lunch and a big dinner will do for you. Melanie even says I now hove Tom Hanks calves (as in the later part of the movie “Castaway”).

The “plain Coke” refers to what I would prefer to drink, rather than a calimocho. In norther Spain, as well as places like Hungary, they have a drink that takes so getting used to, IMHO. Here it is called a calimocho and it is equal parts of red wine and Coca-cola. I like red wine. I like Diet Coke. I sure wouldn’t want to put the two together though. I like Thai green curry chicken and I like Lindt’s chocolates but you will never see me mixing them together.

The last thing I can think 9f talking about is dinner tonight. When we walked into town,there was a bar that served Italian meals right at the first corner. Our apartment was only 30m away so we knew where we were crawling for dinner. It turned out that it was a good lunch place. They only had five pasta dishes and a small pizza on the menu. She also whipped up a lettuce salad since we begged for it. The portions were small though so I ended up with a plate of tagliatelle carbonara as a first course and a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese for my main course. I’m still owned one dessert.

It’s bedtime folks. Peace y’all. Goodnight George & Leo. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. Don’t let snakes, bears or wolves bite either. They all hurt.