Leaving Cacabelos A house over a stream just outside of Cacabelos
We woke up this morning to sunshine! It was a beautiful day and we even took our coats off around mid-morning. So lucky to have this good day. Cacabelos was shining in the sun when we headed out. What a charming town. Wish we could have stayed there longer. The walk was beautiful through hills covered with vineyards. This is the El Bierzo region famous for its wine we are told – – perhaps you have heard of the El Bierzo wine? We went through a small village with many derelict houses but very charming. Then we came to vibrant Villafranca del Bierzo where we are staying tonight in the Hotel Posada Plaza Mayor. Every town has a Plaza Mayor which means “Main Plaza”. So we are right on the main square in the thick of things. The weather was so nice, we were able to walk around and explore the town.
Passed on today’s walkBeautiful vinyard countryAt lunch in Villafranca, the waitress offered to take our photoView of Plaza Mayor from our hotel room. It started raining around 5 pm. Earlier in the day the tables on the plaza were full of people.
Great mural in Astorga bus station On the bus. Spanish bull ahead.
We decided to skip walking a section because of weather and logistics. This was the beautiful section across a mountain range between Astorga and Ponferrada in which we would pass the Cruz de Ferro – – the highest point on the Camino – – about a mile high. The weather forecast for the places in the foothills of this mountain range was for rain and near-freezing weather. We couldn’t get a good forecast for the mountain towns (they are too small) but we expected it might be snowing. In any case, we didn’t like the idea of walking through that area on wet gray days. Some of it treacherous downhill even in good weather (we remember it well from previous caminos – – very challenging).
One thing I’ve always loved about doing a Camino is that you don’t let the weather stop you. At home, if it’s raining or windy or snowing, I seldom carry through with doing my usually-daily walk. But on the Camino, if it’s rainy or windy or snowy, we just put on our best protective clothing and head out. Well, that’s been true for us up till this Camino. We couldn’t face that track through the mountains in this weather. There turned out to be great bus service from Astorga to Ponferrada and we made the trip across the mountains in 70 minutes in a warm comfortable bus instead of walking 5 or 6 days in cold rainy weather.
From Ponferrada we took a taxi part way out of town and then walked into the wonderful town of Cacabelos. (Don’t you just love that name?) In the rain. We were so cold we just checked into our sweet little hotel and then found lunch and then went back to the hotel and hunkered down trying to get warm.
