Spain
Río Boeza

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    • Day 53

      Last day at San Nicolas Albergue

      April 30 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

      Today is the last day of doing everything I have done daily for the past 16 days!!!

      My partner (who I called " OPA") announced he was leaving early at 11 am. It is his daughter's birthday.

      The new group of 4 Hospitalaros arrive sometime today. Two are a couple from Italy and the other two unknown🧐 All I know is that Isobel and I are on the early shift 1-4 pm and then I pack 😅

      My bus leaves at 5:15 am to Fatima Portugal tomorrow morning. I will walk 2.5 km at 4:15 to the bus station. I cannot wait!!!!!!!!

      I have included pictures of a couple who have walked with their old dog of 13 years from Treport France They have walked 2000 km this far. They began Jan 1!!!! Unfortunately it is not a great picture of the dog. They have tented the whole way. Simply Amazing😉

      I also have a picture of a delightful elderly Japanese man who knows no English. We helped him extensively with luggage transfer, finding a grocery store , and showing him which way to find the Camino in the morning.💖💖💖

      Other pictures are from my walks around Ponferrada. The park is so beautiful and many do the circuit walk around it ( 1 km,)

      The mountains are beautiful in the distance ....sort of like Calgary and the Rockies😉

      My poles that I bought here and cannot take home were given to a Pilgrim in need this morning🌞🤗 That's brings me so much Joy 💖

      We are averaging 55 pilgrims each day I am so thankful that the numbers have stayed manageable. I know it won't be long before it will be full (140) every single night!!!

      Good Luck to the next group!!
      💪💪💪💪🍀🍀🍀🍀🙏🙏🙏🙏
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    • Day 6

      Day 5: Foncebadon to Ponferrada

      April 10 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      What a long day!
      Last night we stayed in a bunk house Albergue. It had 7 bunks. So 14 people in this room. I had no idea how I was going to sleep because lights out was at 10 pm. I slept all night! That is not something I am used to. Before we went to bed people were talking about getting up early to watch the sunrise.
      6:30 am people got up and moving. We were on the road by 7:30 am. We didn’t stop walking until 4:30 pm. (We did stop at a few bars for food but other than that we were walking. )
      It was a long day! My second longest walk ever and Patrick’s longest. 16.5 miles! (The picture of the map shows how far we walked.)
      It was a great day! Weather was perfect. At one point I was walking in shorts and a t shirt. Sunrise was special. Trail today was HARD but so much fun. We had a great mix of walking with ourselves and walking with others. The scenery was beautiful! Mountains everywhere you looked.
      Today was a lot of downhill. I felt like my knees were having seizures. lol.
      There was a lot of downhill with big rocks. Had to cross water a lot. Stepped in mud a lot. All kinds of challenges but what fun!
      Total walked 18 miles. (You have to walk to dinner/store or wherever you go. We are both exhausted!
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    • Day 37

      San Nicolas Albergue Day 1

      April 14 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      So, my first day working. We had about 36 pilgrims. This is the perfect job for someone who is interested in statistics for sure!!

      The routine is to open the locked door and gate by 5:30 and be available to help the pilgrims with anything that may come up. They leave by 8 am.

      Next we strip the beds of any paper sheets that were used and empty the garbage.

      We wash down each mattress with disinfectant. There are 2 bunk beds per room with a few larger rooms that have 3.

      We sweep and mop the floors.

      I really enjoy this as I can listen to my music and podcasts etc..

      We then have a break until we open at 1 pm.

      The first shift is 1-4 pm, and the other is 4 pm to 7 pm although Pilgrims will arrive up until we lock the doors at 10:30 pm

      We register each Pilgrim in a book including their Passport or DIN number , name, walking or cycling, where they started their Camino, and where the stayed the night before. We then assign a bed for them and needless to say most want the lower (baja) one and not the top ( arriba).🥴 We do the best we can.

      We do offer a woman's and a men's wing which I think is great😉

      So far so good🤞🙏🍀
      I am working with Jolguin (He reminds me of Opa ( Kurt's Dad)

      Isobel is from Montreal. Gilberto and Jolguin are both from Espana. Gilberto speaks only Spanish . Jolguin is learning English with Duolingo 😉 He also speaks some French and Italian but Spanish is his native language.
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    • Day 36

      Around Ponferrada

      April 13 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      I spent today walking around Ponferrada and taking a few pics. It is such an interesting place with many photo opportunities.

      I dropped by the Hostel that I will be volunteering at and introduced myself. i met Anna who is very experienced and returns each year from Italy to help. No other Hospitalaros have come yet maybe tomorrow.

      I took a picture of 2 elderly gents who were looking for a bench. My competition!!!
      It was very hot and all benches fill very quickly.
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    • Day 35

      Foncebadon to Ponferrada

      May 25, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      I caught a taxi this morning for the 22 km drive to Ponferrada (It was 27 km on the Camino). As we came up and down and down the mountains I realised that I had made the right decision - I couldn’t have walked it, especially with the very rocky paths.

      But the views were spectacular and it would have been a great walk under different circumstances.

      The upside was that I was able to spend time visiting the Templars Castle and wandering through the local street markets which were on today.

      Hostal San Miguel
      9kms
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    • Day 32

      Tag 32 Ponferrada Die Templer Rufen

      June 2, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Der heutige Tag stand im Zeichen der Templer und der Entspannung.
      Heute ging ein kleiner Traum von mir in Erfüllung.
      Ich besuchte die Templer Burg in Ponferrada. Ein wirkliches Juwel.
      Das Wetter wollte erst nicht so richtig.
      Besann sich aber noch eines Besseren.
      Sonst war heute Entspannung auf dem Programm was auch mal nötig war.
      Die nächsten Etappen werden wieder ziemlich ehrgeizig aber das schaffe ich.
      Jetzt bin ich soweit gekommen.
      Natürlich bin ich auch stolz es bis jetzt soweit geschafft zu haben.
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    • Day 25

      Decision point

      August 16, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      This morning I reached the big fork, and given the difficulties getting accommodation on the Invierno, I stayed on the Francés.
      The main point of the Invierno is to avoid a big mountain, which gets covered with snow in winter. Although I heard that the Invierno was very scenic, I hear that the mountain has beautiful views too, and I didn't want to miss it. So, I am happy with the decision. I was going to have to book ahead in any case, so I will get used to that when needed.Read more

    • Day 33 - El Acebo to Ponferrada - 16km

      October 1, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      I am an idiot. No worries, I am now laughing at my idiocy. Last night, I had a private room so I decided to take the inserts out of my boots to give them a chance to air out and low and behold, the original insert was still in the boot and came out at the same time. WHAT?! No wonder my boots were so tight and hot all the time. I took them out as well.

      So, in the morning, I decided to wear only my hiking socks (no injinji socks) and the one arch support insert. My blisters were pretty small and I wrapped them. Let’s see if that helps, because the pain yesterday was crazy.

      Well today, NO PAIN! In fact, I didn’t have to stop my regular 5kms to air out my feet. The toes have so much breathing space, I couldn’t stop talking about it. I ran into Yannette on the trail and we talked about it for awhile.

      The first 7kms was all down hill, similar to the trail yesterday, all rocks, but today, I could enjoy it. I felt so much relief, I can’t believe it took me 30 FN days to figure that out .... again, I am an idiot!

      In Molinaseca we ran into Jenna so we all had a drink and then walked the final 9kms together. We took the back route in through Campo which was nice. Jenna had an albergue booked so we followed her and are staying at the same place. Quite modern and nice. We shared a wash and dry, went to see the castle, then had some food. Very nice relaxing day.

      Tomorrow I am planning a short day as well (15km). I am heading to Cacabelos, it is the town that Joerg first told me he loved me.

      TTYL
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    • Day 35

      Castle of the Knights Templar

      October 22, 2022 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

      After Siesta today we explored a little bit of Ponferrada.

      One of the women from our hostel, Ginny, from Brisbane, Australia came along with us to tour the Knights Castle.

      A little history...the knights templar arrived in Ponferrada Spain to protect the Camino de Santiago & its route across the Iron Bridge (Pons Ferrata). They remained in the castle for over a century.Read more

    • Day 34

      Cruise de Ferro

      October 8, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      To miejsce zasługuje na osobną notatkę ze względu na ważność, symbolikę i emocjonalność ,która nam się z nim wiązała. Jest to miejsce gdzie kładzie się pod krzyżem zwykle mały kamień który przywozi się z domu lub który był powierzony naszej opiece aby go tam właśnie zanieść. Ma reprezentować ciężary życiowe, trudne sprawy, modlitwy, prośby o zdrowie, ład w głowie, ciężkie rzeczy, których nie chce się więcej nosić w życiu. Mieliśmy sporo kamyków, parę dołożyliśmy od siebie dla tych co nie mogli ich nam dać i parę dla tych co nie dali a powinni. Jednym z powodów dla, którego nie pozbyłem się plecaka jest to, że chciałem dokładnie czuć ich ciężar. Początkowo była to tylko symbolika, ale później kiedy codziennie myślałem sobie o tym co te kamienie przedstawiają i czym są dla mnie i dla innych które nam je powierzyli, łącząc to z codziennym wysiłkiem fizycznym i psychicznym, jednocześnie napełniając każda intencje/kamień modlitwą, nabrało to zupełnie innego wymiaru i wartości. Kładąc każdy jeden kamień, każdą jedną myśl pod tym symbolicznym krzyżem z usypana górą z kamieni pozostawionych przez poprzednich pielgrzymów, dawało uczucie spokoju i wypełnienia. Nie mam dobrego talentu aby to właściwie opisać ale było to coś bardzo mocnego.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Río Boeza, Rio Boeza

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