Laguna de Castilla to Filloval

June 9 - Laguna de Castilla to Filloval (alternatively spelled Fillobal)
The albergue last night was a big disappointment. It's a private albergue, one of the ones called a red albergue which supposedly have to be up to a certain standard set by the group which is trying to establish their albergues as something just a bit better. In many cases they are really nice - clean, airy and roomy. But this one was none of the above. They do have a certain level of cleanliness for sure- for example they change the sheet and pillowcase that you put your sleeping bag on every day. There are a lot of albergues that don't appear to do that for weeks. But we were so crowded - 7 people in a room that had two bunk beds across with about 30 inches in between them and two beds end to end with about 3 or 4 feet in between them. The bathroom with toilet, shower and sink was at one end with bubbly glass doors you could see through between them. Four heads, including mine were right up against the bathroom wall. And since bathroom ventilation is relatively unknown in Spain the bedroom is constantly humid and there's black mold on the ceiling and some walls. Nice- not!

We woke up to mist that was so thick it dripped and it stayed that way until well after lunch when we were much lower so we didn't see anything of the wonderful views that this day usually brings. We made our way two or three hundred meters up a rocky path to O'Cebreiro where we had breakfast but saw nothing of this picturesque little Galician community. Ten years ago when I was first up here it was a quiet little spot that always had Celtic fiddle music playing in the bars. Essentially all of the houses were made of slate and had either slate or the more traditional (at that time) thatched roofs. Many of the houses were round. They have tried to preserve the old look but it's hard to tell how successful they were since we still couldn't see anything in the mist. But breakfast was good and we headed on up and down and up and down and up again until we finally reached the highest point at Alto do Poio (note the do instead of de - Galicia is where the language starts changing and Gallego forms are often used. In this case it's similar to Portuguese). It was only about 70 meters higher than O'Cebreiro but we climbed that height at least a half dozen times before we actually reached it and by that time we needed coffee to fortify us.

 We saw a poster for an albergue just 3 or 4 kilometers outside of our next town of any size - Triacastela - so we made a reservation. We curled down, down and up and down with, finally, beautiful views for another 8 kilometers to stop walking somewhere between 18 and 20 kilometers.

Our albergue tonight is clean, spacious and quiet. We should have a great sleep if we don't drink any more caffeine today.

We passed the large stone marker into Galicia today and along with that come the cement 'countdown' markers which are currently saying we have something less than 135 kilometers to go. Almost time to go home- HOORAY!

Trabadelo to Laguna del Castilla

June 8 - Trabadelo to Laguna del Castilla
Neither of us slept last night although our albergue was quite quiet for a change. Light snoring but nothing remarkable. The problem? Drinking coffee too late in the day! Spanish coffee is delicious by most standards and is hard to resist but it's loaded with caffeine and deadly if you have it much after noon.

At any rate, we were up and at it at 6:30 and even with breakfast downstairs at the restaurant we were on our way by around 7:30. This was to be a day of climbing - about 700 meters- but in the past the beauty of it has always won over the climb. We pounded the pavement out of Trabadelo for at least a dozen kilometers and I was beginning to wonder if the country had managed to pave over the whole rest of the camino but eventually, after a few stops for coffee, eggs, water and whatever else we could think of we made it to an actual path. The path though, as so often happens headed steeply down at first, something that almost always happens before the uphill. But up it went eventually and up and up - in what felt like a tunnel of trees with rocks that were  almost like steps underfoot. Up we huffed and puffed. It seemed as if this whole elevation was going to be in the last few kilometers. The beauty here is damp and green, with overhanging trees and bushes.

After La Faba we came into the open and it's here that the real beauty starts. The fields open up and roll down and up in all directions. The white heather and white and yellow broom follow the hills and valleys along fences and in dips. It's just like a fairyland! It is stunningly beautiful and very different from when I have been here earlier in the year. Early and mid May the mountainsides are covered in pink and purple erica as far as you can see. But now it's all white and yellow and equally beautiful. These pictures are all going to look very similar to anyone who wasn't there and I can see they're quite dark. So you'll have to take my word for the fact that it was magical to be there.

 We followed the steep path up and along as it rolled its way up to the small town where we had made our reservation. Our day was 18 or 21 kilometers depending on  whose version of the mileage you believe and we were surprised that we got here before two considering the uphill climb. With our lunch of the typical mixed salad - with tuna, egg, olives and soggy white asparagus over lettuce, tomato and onion, we tried the local taste treat of cheese and honey. It's made locally from cow milk and is kind of curdy like a firm cheesecake without the sugar. But with local honey and on bread it is quite a taste treat! Only 2 to 3 kilometers in the morning up to O'Cebreiro- a lovely little village where we will want to spend some time.

Today it was raining lightly (and now more heavily) for most of our walk. We're hoping for a clearer day tomorrow but certainly won't count on it.

Cacabelos to Trabadelo

June 7th - Cacabelos to Trabadelo
Sheesh - sounds like the start of a poem doesn't? Okay it really does if you pronounce it in Spanish:)

Pounded the pavement for a couple of kilometers out of Cacabelos this morning to arrive at a small community (of about 3 people) named Pieros for breakfast. And a good breakfast it was - fried eggs over easy (an unknown in this country), bacon cooked almost crisp, toast, cafe con leche and freshly squeezed orange juice - the last two being staples in our diet now.

From there we headed for a morning of beautiful walking. Almond and walnut trees, apple, cherry and apricot trees, huge and abundant wild roses, vineyards as far as we could see, gardens everywhere and the sweet smells of wild flowers filling the air. The birds sang and whistled back and forth to each other and the land rolled and dipped away from us. This would be an amazing place to be during harvest season! We passed at least a dozen bodegas- small wine producers (and of course storers - I'm sure there's another word for the place you keep wine other than 'storers' and bodega) as we walked along the 8 or 10 kilometers to Villafranca del Bierzo, a really lovely little town where I had hoped to stay until our plans had to change because of our knee thing. Incidentally that knee is doing well today.

On the way into Villafranca we were convinced to buy some fresh cherries, apricots and a peach from a local vendor. The cherries are local and the others are from Catalunia, further south. It's been very interesting in Spain and France to see how much emphasis is placed on buying locally. They do make a big deal of pushing local food and usually won't offer similar produce from somewhere else if it available locally. We stopped for a tea to assess our knee and decided to go separate ways for the next section. Suzy took the low road and I took the mountain route as it is another of my favourite days to walk. But it's a really hard walk, steeply uphill and then less steeply for at least three hours. But how beautiful it is when you're up there! You feel like you're on top of the world and you look deeply down into the valleys. The hillsides are covered with purple erica and white and yellow broom although the first two were a bit past their prime. The lavender fills the hillsides and endless little flowers fill in any spaces. At one point there were so many little white and yellow flowers on both sides of the path I felt like I was walking among the stars. Very enchanting.

Eventually it leveled out and I got to enjoy it even more without all of the huffing and puffing! As the downhill started I walked through nut orchards and more flowers and just as I started thinking that the downhill wasn't as bad as I remembered, it was. So I slipped and slid my way into town, found the albergue which is a nice clean, private albergue called La Crispeta and jumped into the shower to cool off. A wonderful and hard walk.

Tomorrow we head up to O'Cebreiro which is the last of our big mountains to go over. We're having our packs driven up for 5 €uros each so it should be a lovely walk. It's pouring rain at the moment so hopefully it gets it all out of its system by morning!

Cambrianos to Cacabelos

June 6th - Cambrianos to Cacabelos
Up at about 6:45 and poked around, getting organized for the day and eating our breakfast. Finally ready by 7:45 we stepped out of the door to note that it was raining which it hadn't been when we first looked out. By the time we got our raincoats out the rain was practically non-existent and never did amount to much during the day. We headed out, still on pavement for the first few kilometers and stopped in the first community, Fuente Nuevas for a coffee and a fresh orange juice. It was an attractive community as well, with flowers draped off overhanging balconies and roses blooming and climbing everywhere. Fortified we walked on through Camponaraya, still walking on pavement which offered food and coffee and even wine tasting and tapas but this time we were not to be tempted. On the other side of town we finally got onto a dirt road and off the pavement, much more important to me than to Suzy as I'm the pavement hater between us.

This next stage of the path was really beautiful as it twisted and turned on its way to Cacabelos. We're back into wine country here in El Bierzo and the people here are very proud of both their wine and their fresh food and it's obvious that they take both very seriously. We passed through vineyards and gardens and huge wild rose bushes. The air was perfumed from one kind of plant in particular - a low bush that looked a lot like the grape plants and even had little grapelike clusters on it. I don't know what it was but it sure smelled wonderful! The mountains in the distance created beautiful pictures every way we looked. But by the time we got to Cacabelos our knee was bothering us and even though neither one of us really wanted to stop, we decided the knee should take priority since it can make our lives miserable if we don't humour it a bit.

The albergue here is alongside the church and was described as two to a box in Miam Miam Dodo (a French guidebook that attempts to list all of the places to stay in each community). We couldn't really imagine what that would be but it is as it soundes. The albergue is a long strip of  about 60 or 70 boxes with doors  and a roof. There's room for two beds with about 3 or 4 feet in between and about 3 feet at the end of the eds which is made into cupboards. It feels a bit like a prison or a monk's cell but it will probably work just fine.

Molinaseca to Cambrianos

June 5th - Molinaseca to Cambrianos
I'd forgotten what a lovely little spot Molinaseca is. It seems to a happening little spot with quite a few restaurants, bars and places to stay although it doesn't have a huge population - technically just under 1000 people. The houses in this area are typical of the area with their overhanging balconies, many of which are loaded with bright flowers. Roses seem to grow very well here and decorate almost every house and yard- huge red, yellow, pink and mixed- and most of them are the climbing varities. They're very beautiful and their perfume is wonderful! Almost everyone here seems to grow a vegetable garden. There appear to be community plots as there are often  a dozen or so gardens all lined up in the same areas. Every spare plot has a garden in it and the vegetables are looking lush and appear to be growing well. So many times as we are walking I have noticed the soil here. It seems so deep compared with ours. We have this little skimpy bit of soil that seems to need a lot of help just to grow anything, but here they turn over almost 3 feet of soil in the spring to prepare for planting. It looks rich but it's the depth of it that impresses me.

We made our way out of Molinaseca in the morning, conscious that even though they were feeling much better, a quarter of our knees might not want to travel too far. Ponferrada was only about 8 kilometers away and we decided to get ourselves there and examine our options. So we pounded our way, mostly on pavement to Ponferrada and stopped in at the albergue which has a nice courtyard and a building outside of the albergue that has solar heated showers, new bathrooms and a wash area, all of which can be used before the albergue opens. We needed to find the post office and decided that we would walk to the other side of town and find a place to stay to make our exit easier. Ponferrada has a stunning example of a Knights Templar castle which we thought we would get back to see but as it happened we didn't.

We walked and walked to the other side of town in the heat. Ponferrada has a population of almost 70,000 and has outskirts that go on for kilometers. Eventually we ended up 5 kilometers out of Ponferrada in a bedroom community called Cambrianos. We stayed in a casa rural called El Almendro de Maria which was just lovely. It was a good-sized place with several other bedrooms upstairs but we were the only ones in it.  It had a good-sized coutyard, and a nice living room whe we could sit. The kitchen was well-stocked and there was breakfast food as well as other snacks that we could help ourselves to. We had our own bathroom which is always a treat and we could use the washing machine for our dirty clothes. It was really nice just to have some peace and quiet and so much clean space to ourselves. The town came alive for awhile between about 5:00 and 8:00 and we were in bed shortly after that. Very refreshing.

El Acebo to Molinaseca

June 4th - El Acebo to Molinaseca
El Acebo does a good job of catering to the pilgrims with one exception - there's no place in town to get breakfast before 8:00. By that time almost everyone is long gone searching for coffee and food at the next available location. But the town itself has grown since I was last here in 2009. At that time El Meson de Aceba was a hopping restaurant and snack place because it was essentially the only place in town for food. There was a hotel/casa rural that is an upper scale spot and a woman who made bocadillos and sold a few drinks but that was it. Now as you enter town there is a grocery store, a bar, two casa rurals all selling food and drinks long before you reach El Meson de Aceba. Anytime I've gone in there before it was hopping. This time it was dead. But we had made reservations there and so stayed. It was pleasant and nice and did fill up eventually although I don't think they sell near as much food as they used to. But we slept reasonably well and were ready to go by about 7:15. It was a bit of a shock to find nothing available at that time of the day so we headed out with our peanuts and dried apricots and shared and apple I had purchased the night before.

The way was downhill and very rough all morning. Large rocks and the  steep downhill made the going slow and hard on the knees. Eventually after about 5 kilometers we did find a place for breakfast. it sounded wonderful, eggs and toast, coffee or tea, orange juice - but in fact it was terrible except for the eggs. The toast was pan bimbo (regular white bread), the orange juice was orange pop with maybe 10% juice and the coffee was lukewarm instant coffee. The lady seemed a bit upset when we didn't eat it all but didn't ask why. We moved on and eventually arrived at Molinaseca which is a lovely little spot with numerous good restaurants, but unfortunately with one out of four twisted knees. It's not surprising considering the terrain, and a knee brace and a bit of rest will no doubt fix it up. The pharmacy was, as always, extremely helpful. It has cut our day short but seems worth it to stop and rest that knee rather than risk injuring it further.

After the trip to the pharmacy we went to one of the restaurants that offered fresh orange juice and quickly filled up the caffeine tanks which were very low on fuel and had a really great mixed salad while we pondered our immediate future. A quick walk around the block determined that a knee rest was in order, so we are now ensconced in a very sunny albergue relaxing and resting.

When we see the number of people who are much younger than us who took taxis today and the many others who taxied their backpacks, it's amazing that we are doing as well as we are - two old women doddering across the country, stumbling and lurching up and down over boulders and upended slate with slippery smaller rocks in between to slide on, carrying packs that feel too heavy, eating too much white bread and sugar and pushing our bodies to do things they really want to stop doing now. So another rest won't hurt us a bit.

Foncebadón to El Acebo

June 3rd - Foncebadón to El Acebo
Hmm - we seem to be getting into a pattern- one good sleep, one lousy sleep, one good sleep and last night - one lousy one!
We stayed at  El Convento in Foncebadón and the rooms are all downstairs, not exactly in the basement but it does kind of feel that way. Our room was small and interestingly had an Italian couple, a Mexican couple, a Hungarian couple, a Dutch couple and us. Quite an international group to sleep together! Everyone behaved themselves reasonably well - only a couple of light snorers. But the beds were uncomfortable and the room airless and somehow with everyone getting up to pee at least once a night it made for a difficult night.  I was on an upper bunk of a very narrow bed without a ladder so getting up and down was quite a challenge but eventually I figured out a way to do it without maiming myself. The Hungarian guy kept offering to lift me down but his wife looked lighter than I am so I declined. He was a strong looking man though so might have actually managed it without collapsing!

The way today was equally beautiful as we crossed the hills climbing up to about 1530 meters for the first third of the day. And today was the day where we came to the Cruz de Ferro. This is a spot where long ago the Celts left offerings to the gods to ask for their assistance in getting them through the upcoming terrain where they were apparently in danger of being attacked. After the territory became Christian, the church put up a cross since people still wanted to leave stones for the gods. The spot has become symbolic for pilgrims who carry a stone for themselves and/or others from home and leave under the iron cross as a symbol of putting down their burdens so they can move to a better or happier place in their lives. As a symbolic act, many of us take it very seriously and leave our rocks with tears and determination to leave things behind.

As we started downhill the path became very rough and hard for many people - especially those who were in a hurry to put on a lot of kilometers. It's a day I love but as I listen to many others I hear that they don't.  We are staying at an albergue at the Meson El Acebo and are washed, our clothes have been washed and have dried in the sun and we've been fed. Now for a good sleep I hope.