Day 27 - to Villafranca del Bierzo

Naturally, thanks for my day and 5000 step sponsors. Thanks to all those holding me up in your prayers - as will become obvious, I think that you need to either say another prayer or pray just a tad harder....

Yesterday, unfolded relatively pleasantly. The parish hostel at Ponferrada is among the best I have seen. It is huge, but each room has only two double bunks, there is a large garden and there is a foot bath. In the early afternoon, I spent some time soaking my feet, which is always wonderful, and some time chatting. At about 3pm, I decided to go and play tourist. Being Spain, nothing is open at this hour - in fact, the centre of town was absolutely deserted and incredibly hot. Nevertheless, I took the chance to roam the streets and snap shots of the castle, basilica, and other old buildings. 

Returning to the hostel, I had a little rest. Mass at the Basilica was at 8pm. I was starving. But, there was almost nowhere to have a real meal. Spaniards eat dinner very late - most restaurant kitchens open at 8pm or later. I wandered around trying to find somewhere and had no luck whatsoever - bar a small nibble with a coke in a bar. I went to Mass and was delighted that they offered the special pilgrim's blessing at the end. Then, I went to the very first place after the Cathedral for something to eat. I decided not to have the special pilgrim's menu, as it is so boring, and ordered these delicious chicken, ham and apple skewers. They were delightful. 

For the second time that day, the waiter complimented me on my spanish - I tried to tell him that I actually don't have any spanish - I just do a mental conversion from Italian. But, he was insistent. I reckon that they assume that I am american or english and are stunned that I can manage more than three words. Obviously my bravado with foreign languages is paying off.

After dinner, I returned to the hostel and put my feet back in the foot bath. I spent some time talking with fellow pilgrims (from Italy and Colombia). We were all delighted that the next day was going to be a short one - after two long days and an expecially hard down-hill walk, it was wonderful to think that fewer than 25 kms awaited.

I slept incredibly well. None of the other three snored - was that the first time. I also didn't feel very hurried getting up, with fewer than 25kms awaiting me. I left the hostel at about 6.30am, ready to simply amble along.

The way out of Ponferrada is a little bit complicated. While I didn't get lost, I did have to pay attention to all the way signs. After about 2.5 kms, I was at a point where the road split in two. I could see a way marker up ahead but could not tell whetehr the yellow arrow was pointing right or left. I peered more intensely at the upcoming sign but could still not tell which was the arrow went. My hand moved to my face and I relaised, at that moment, that my glasses were back in the hostel.

It is at precisely that moment that everything seemed to go pear-shaped with the day. I now had to add an extra 5kms to my walking total. The day would take at least an hour more of walking. I would end up walking into the heat of the day.

I went from having my fingers on the second rosary bead and being ready to live the walk to having a head full of not very nice thoughts and dreams of taxis driving through my mind.

Stupidly, I basically rushed back to the hostel - this was not really necessary and meant that I had consumed even more energy more quickly than necessary. An hour later, I was back at that split in the road, frustrated, hot and tired.  It took me many more kilometres until I was really in the zone again.

The only real blessing of the day was that almost every church on the Way was open. This is a sign of how busy the path now is. I was able, a number of times, to pop into a church a pay a visit. Each of them was lovely and prayerful.  

There was one church, in particular, that I wanted to visit - it features, according to my guide book, Jesus and St Anthony playing cards. There were two women washing the floor outside. I said, "Ecuse me Maam,cCan one enter the church?" The woman responded by pointing at the footpath and said, "The Camino is there." I said "Yes, I know, but can one enter the church?"  The same woman pointed at the footpath and said again, "The Camino is there."  I replied, "I know very well where the Camino is, my question was 'Can one enter the church?'"  To this she replied, "No, we are cleaning." I replied, "OK. But it would be better to be a little be more friendly with others." And, I went on my way.  For the next half an hour, I thought of what I would have liked to have said to that woman.

Only a couple of kilometres later, after a brief rest stop for a cold drink, I began the last five kilometre stretch of the day. Of course, these last few kilometres were very hard going. There were lots of uphills and downhills and even though the path was marked as a "green" one - it was very, very brown: brown, dry, dusty, hot. 

Villafranca seemed like it was never going to appear. When it did, I discovered that it was all downhill until my hostel. This means that I won't be going back into much of the old town to explore later. There is no way that I am going back up that very high hill to see the sights that I passed on the way back down. We'll see what the remainder of the day has in store.

Adios!