Leon to Ponferrada

Hello from Ponferrada, Spain. First off, Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom...thank you for all of your support! I took it easy today and got myself to Ponferrada. I stayed in a small hotel last night so, unlike an albergue, check out time was not until noon. That enabled me to sleep in and take my time this morning. I also got my flight booked to come home this morning. I have an 8:30 am flight on Friday the 25th out of Porto, Portugal landing in Boston at 1:20 pm. An 11 hour flight but I lose 6 hours with the time difference. I will take the train or bus to Portland and Connor is picking me up there. I met up with two older gentlemen from London last night in Leon. They had just arrived and begin walking to Santiago today. They are taking the easier method of walking the Camino....they walk until they are tired and call someone from their booking agency to drive them to the next town. We met up at a cafe and when they learned I had been walking for almost three weeks, they wanted to here some of my stories. As it turned out, we had dinner together and had a great political discussion among other topics. The really great part?...they bought the wine!...which was the really good stuff! I arrived at the bus depot in Ponferrada at around 3pm. I had a 2mile or so walk to find the Camino path and a place to stay around 4:30. I ended up in a small albergue. I had dinner tonight with an engineer from Frankfort, Germany and a physician from Barcelona, Spain. Again, great discussion and food. Tomorrow, I am on the trail again...15 miles to the next town. I will enter the province of Galicia in the next couple of days. Galacia is very mountainous and the scenery is stunning I have been told so the photos from here on in to Santiago should be great. Galacia also has a huge Celtic influence so that should be interesting to see. It is also known for its seafood...especially octopus and I will be trying that out for sure. It is also very mountainous, so I will be grinding up and down huge hills once again. That’s it from here...I hope this finds everyone well!Read more