Camino Frances, Day 23

 Day 23, May 22th, 06:56am, 48°, and raining😡!!  away I go!!!

Heading back towards the Camino Trail, only a few blocks away from Albergue Alda. Once again, it’s raining as I start my day. Made it back to the trail. Currently walking through a park under the canopy of the tree’s, so that’s helping protect me from the rain. The Sil River is to my right. I passed over that river yesterday entering Ponferrada.

Had a very interesting night of sleep. The guy that I told you was sleeping when I arrived and was still sleeping when we went to bed. Well around 1 o’clock his phone just started going off going & off. I almost got up and said hey dude, answer your dam phone!!! Finally he answered it and then for the next hour or so it was just craziness. He was up out of bed out the door back in the room out of the room, and then one point he took all the luggage, that was sitting in our room, took it outside of the room then brought it back in, and then he took it back outside of the room. I had to get up and go to the restroom, and I saw him, he was getting in the elevator with all this luggage. I thought good, he’s leaving now, but then he came back😡. I don’t know what the heck was going on, but then he finally went back to asleep. That dude was still asleep when I started packing my stuff up at 6am, and I was not quiet about it on purpose either. 

7:56am, entering the town of Columbrianos. It is currently not raining so I just have my poncho on but unzipped for ventilation. Nothing is open in this little village, especially for coffee so I’ll just keep moving on and hit the next one.

8:28am, entering the village of Fuentes Nuevas. Just passed a Camino mile marker, and doing the conversion from kilometers to miles, I have 126.7 miles to go. l found an open café,  popped in got my café con Leche, and another piece of the Spanish Santiago cake. OK, taking a chance, leaving the café, poncho comes off but the rain jacket is going on because it’s still cold, so let’s see if this works 🤞🏻. 

9:15am entering Camponaraya.

9:37am real first update of the day, at 6.2 miles 2hrs 35 mins into it. Currently 51°. It’s not been a bad walk this morning besides the intermittent rain showers. Right after I left that café, I said, I put on my rain jacket & took off my poncho, yeah that didn’t last very long. I walked to the end of that little town, there was a nice little church there. It was open, a very nice lady outside gave me some good info on the church, was built back in the early 1800s etc… Went in, it was very beautiful inside. The main alter was spectacular, for such a little church. Took some pictures, got my stamp, you guessed it, stepped outside, pouring rain, jacket off poncho back on. I feel like that commercial, instead of wax on wax off, it’s poncho on poncho off!!!. Actually I am getting pretty proficient in putting on my poncho, not that I am proud of that🤣.

9:52am, currently walking down this dirt path and surprisingly it’s not muddy. I am surrounded by wine vineyards on both sides of me now. These vineyards are farther developed than the ones I passed about a week ago or more. Looking at my map booklet I should be sticking to this dirt road for a while now but at least it’s not muddy. I stopped at this little stand along the pathway, and it was a man making Camino commemorative wax stamps, well of course I needed one of those. 🤣🤣tourist!!!!!!!!, but it’s a very cool stamp.

10:27am, entering Cacabelos. This is a very popular stopping point for pilgrims, w/ lots of services. The Church was open👏🏻👏🏻, went in, looked around & got my stamp. I am almost through my second stamp booklet🫨. I have another, very cool, wax stamp!!!!. I decided to stop here in Cacabelos to grab a quick bite to eat. The upcoming villages, looking on my map book, does not show many great options so I thought I’d just stop here and get something to eat. Went w/ the prosciutto ham and mozzarella cheese sandwich with a Coke zero. The common bread they use here in Spain is  Pan de Barra, a hard baguette type bread. It’s a harder bread than the bread we use in America, and they don’t use condiments either, I have noticed.

11:22am, Crossing over the CUA River.

12 o’clock noon I’m at 12.2 miles just under five hours currently it’s 56° still cloudy but I have shed both my jacket & poncho and we know what that means. I have been climbing ever since I left Cacabelos. I am definitely back in the wine region, having passed multiple wineries in the last couple hours and there is an alternate route that takes you more through the wine district, but I’m staying on the regular Camino route today. Also passing a lot of very full cherry trees. They’re just a little too far off the trail to pick them. Passed through the little village of Pieros, if you blink you would miss it. Heading up through the lower foothills, in the distance the clouds are resting on top of the taller mountains. Rain stay away!! 

 Like I said , I’ve gone 12.2 miles so far today, at this time yesterday, I was barely 6 miles. That just shows how difficult that terrain was yesterday. Okay, I just passed a cherry tree right along the trail and I grabbed a bunch of them and just ate them. They were really good.

12:30pm, I just passed three catholic preachers, on the trail, and I over heard them compiling about all the blisters they have🤣🤣🤣, join the crowd buckaroos, no free passes given!

13:00pm, reached Villafranca del Bierzo. I am staying @ Hostel Mendez. I just made it in time because it is starting to rain, that was close. Every place I stay it seems to be a different check-in system. Some use, whats referred to, as a pilgrim pass, which I filled out many months ago. Others use something called Aloha Pass, another online form I had to fill out. Some use just my standard passport. Some use just the booking # from Booking.com. This place used a complete different registration application process. So I had to fill out another online form😡. Okay enough venting. They do offer a pilgrims meal in their  restaurant for €17, I went with that, but declined the breakfast meal because they start serving to late in the morning. My room is nice, but very small. I do have a nice view of the Burbia River right below me. Did my normal Camino Life chores. Went to the lobby, had a beer and worked on this blog, also watched the wet pilgrims come strolling in for check-in. Now just kind of waiting for dinner time. I looked at the dinner menu. Going w/ a salad, Garlic Trout and followed that up with custard pudding. Review will be forthcoming.

Tomorrow is going to be another hard day. Will be heading up to O Cebreiro, nearly a 4,000ft climb, in about 18 miles. If you remember from a blog, I did way back, I had mentioned about a man that was going to take a horse up to O Cebreiro, rather than walk it. But the good news, rain only 11% predicted.

Stats of the day, Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo, Stage 23

Miles- 16

Duration- 6hrs 19min

Elevation- 1,006ft

Temp- 50’s all day, w/ clouds and some rain

Song- “Sweet Emotions”. Aerosmith 

Review on dinner, Spanish Salad, tomatoes, lettuce, white onions, corn, shredded carrots, italian dressing, very simple- 8

Garlic Trout w/ french fries, very good flavor, bones separated from the meat easily, had a hint of garlic floor- 8

Desert, Chocolate Mousse Pie- Can you really go wrong w/ Chocolate Mousse—No!!! - 9, because the piece was small🤣🤣🤣

As always thanks for reading, have a fabulous day.