Molinaseca to Cacabelos

A random thoughts post. I’m tired and just ready to let it flow.

-----When you walk down into Molinaseca, you’ve been coming down a steep, rocky path for most of the Camino stage. You don’t see the town until you are almost on top of it. Then you turn one more corner and see a bridge and a river flowing gently underneath. Two years ago, when I walked this Way, I stopped and ate lunch next to the river and then pressed forward to Ponferada where there was a Templar Castle.

Castles are cool, and the Templar Knights are full of history, mystery, and intrigue, but given a choice, I find more Camino solace and peace coming down from the cross at the river than I do at the castle. So for this trip, we stopped our stage in Molinaseca. We took advantage of our time at the river. We went for a swim in it. We walked around it. We ate dinner next to it. We slept in a room facing it, and woke up to the light reflecting off of it.

On the way out of town today, we looked at another albergue we may want to use for our group next year. As nice as the setting, price, and ratings may be, it was too far away from the river.

-----There was a weariness in all three of us today. It was noticeable in our pace, our processing, and our patter.

-----While the albergue we checked out in Molinaseca didn’t check out, the one we visited at the end of our day in Cacabelos looks perfect for our plans next year. Interestingly enough, it is situated a stone’s throw away from another river.

-----Today we discussed friendships: the people who hold us and the people we hold dear. The friends we have loved and the ones we have lost. The difference between the friends we make due to proximity and those due to true affinity.

-----Tomorrow we will walk to Trabadelo to stay with some of my friends. They live next to a river.Read more