To Ponferrada

October 1

The descents yesterday and today about did my hip and knees in…I don’t mind going downhill, but going down steeply on sideways slabs of rock and then loose scree-like rock is not my thing AT ALL! I am so glad we can put that part of our journey behind us. 🙂

It’s amazing how our minds usually forget the hard unpleasant parts and tend to only remember the good. Not sure I will forget this, though.

We walked into Ponferrada with Judy from Dublin. She’s the one who almost caught Alan without his shorts yesterday when we were accidentally in her room. 😂

Ponferrada has an amazing castle! The castle of the Templar knights of Ponferrada is a magnificent building. It houses the Templars’ Library and the Ponferrada Investigation and Study Centre, which contains almost 1,400 books including facsimile editions of works by Leonardo da Vinci.

It was originally a hill-fort and later a Roman citadel. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Templar knights took possession of the fortress and reinforced and extended it to use it as an inhabitable palace and for protection, on the route of the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela. It is so large, it’s hard to get a good photo.

For the past few days I have been craving pizza and we were able to have amazing pizza during our late lunch with Don and Maryann from San Francisco. Craving satisfied!

It has been HOT in the late afternoon, so tomorrow will be another early, early start. We walked by moonlight this morning and plan to do it again.

We have 128 miles left and are headed to Villafranca del Bierzo.Read more