Parque de Gil y Carrasco "El Plantío"

Oh dear - although we’ve got veggie food tonight it feels like a bit of a mistake as a choice of a place to stay as Pieros is tiny and there seem to be only four of us staying. I’m feeling very guilty as I booked it having heard about it from another vegan pilgrim (now helping out at Albergue Verde) and thought it sounded good. Also just a relief to be able to eat something in the evening. Anyway sure it will be fine and we’ve rearranged another similar one that we were due to go to tomorrow.
The walk today was mainly great - set off at about 6.45 in the cool of the day, and walked out of Ponferrada towards the mountains. Ponferrada is surrounded by mountains and is , I think, a lovely town.
Walking out we gradually reached the countryside. It’s wine country and so we were walking though vineyards with grapes way more advanced than when we were in the Rioja area. I had been led to expect that it would be a boring walk mainly by roads, but this wasn’t really the case. There was some road walking but also plenty on paths and very quiet roads with fantastic birdsong.
We were spoilt for places to stop for coffee and when we reached Cacabelos, the fairly sizeable town before the place where we were staying, we had iced coffee (in Spain coffee with an ice cube) and some padrón peppers which were delicious.
The road to Pieros was a bit hot and lacking in shade but we were welcomed at the Albergue with iced water and after a shower felt much better.
After working out that it was going to be very complicated getting to a nearby monastery that looked very interesting which although only about an hours walk away felt a bit far in the heat, we have now taken the bus back to town and I am now sitting by the river having had a delicious swim. Definitely the perfect antidote to the heat!!
A glass of the local rosé wine later the bus miraculously appeared at roughly the right time, if not at the actual bus stop, and we were back at the Albergue in 5 minutes.
Dinner was interesting. There are just 4 of us here tonight - c and I and two Germans - one of whom speaks no English at all - and neither of us speak any German. He was with us last night too in Astorga at Albergue Alea and both nights he didn’t seem too enamoured of the food. I’m pretty sure he’s staying at Casa Susie tomorrow in Trabadelo, also a veggie place, and I’m sort of wondering why as he’s definitely not vegetarian (this was clear!) and he doesn’t seem to like vegetarian food. But I guess each to their own! He’s very sweet and we all got along well in a non verbal way. Maybe I need to learn German next.
I’m having a very early night :) as it’s super hot and will be hotter tomorrow so we’re leaving earlier.Read more