Cool walk through the valley

Today we had an easy, cool walk through the valley - 14.5 kms or so - and have ended up in a lovely hotel in a sweet little village, Ambasmestas, in the next valley after Bierzo. We took the easy option - last time we climbed a challenging ascent and had an amazing walk on the top of the mountains, looking down into the valleys - but 5 years on we decided to be conservative and it also was beautiful...we followed the road beside a little river in the shade...the sun doesn’t reach there till later...beautiful trees...many, many chestnut trees with their yellow-green prickly balls, and poplars...so it was pleasant and easy, and we reached our hotel by midday.

It is a lovely place, and our room has its own balcony where we intend to spend the afternoon reading and relaxing in the sun. The weather has been unbelievably perfect...there are some showers predicted for tomorrow afternoon, but we can hardly complain. We haven’t had any rain since the first half hour walking out of Pamplona!! Tomorrow we do the big climb up to O Cebreiro - an ascent of roughly 700 metres - but it zig zags up and our total distance will only be about 14 kms. Then we have 2 nights there, so a rest day on Sunday. Off to relax!!Read more