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Villafranca del Bierzo

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    • TravelerWalka'bout thru Spain & Italy
      1
      1111
      Day 27

      Part 2 of Day 23

      July 16 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      19 Camino miles completed and we ended the day with a total of 22 miles walked/hiked. Beautiful wine country. Many churches along the way. Another challenging day physically but it looks like the hard pushing of the miles is done for now until we get closer to the end. I'm getting sad to know the end is in sight. I'm trying not to live in the future and stay in the present but my mind does stray ahead.
      The view from our room... just WOW      Read more

    • TravelerWalka'bout thru Spain & Italy
      2
      11
      Day 27

      Day 23 to Villafranca

      July 16 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      After getting in at 9pm yesterday, there was no way we wanted to get up at 5am, so we slept in till 7. We were the last ones to leave the albergue. Pros and cons to this: Pros, we got needed rest after the hike we had to get out of the canyon we were in. Hardest hike we've done since Yosemite.
      Cons, hiking in the heat, getting in late again, and possibly no dinner, depending on how big or small the town is. Our goal for today was to catch up to our original trail family, and we did😁 we worked so hard to do this and it was worth it.
      Another milestone: 350 miles completed🦾
      Having breakfast in front of a castle built by the templer knights was pretty amazing. Pancakes we supposedly american but they had no syrup. We enjoyed them anyway.      Read more

    • TravelerTravelling Tanja
      Day 204

      Camino Frances 13 - Teil 1

      August 19, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Gestern morgen bin ich kurz vor dem Sonnenaufgang in Foncebadon gestartet, um die 2 km zum Pass mit dem Cruz de Ferro zu laufen. Das Eisenkreuz auf dem Eichenmast ist für viele Pilger eine der wichtigsten Stellen auf dem Jakobsweg. Hier legen die meisten Pilger einen Stein auf den großen Steinhaufen um den Eichenmast. Das Ablegen des Steins soll das Ablegen einer persönlichen Last symbolisieren. Eine schöne Tradition aber ich muss gestehen, dass mich der Sonnenaufgang gestern Morgen viel mehr beeindruckt hat. Es war ein unglaubliches Naturschauspiel. 😍
      Vom Cruz de Ferro ging es noch eine Weile relativ eben auf der Passhöhe entlang, bevor der kilometerlange Weg bergab begann nach El Acebo. Dort angekommen gab es erstmal Frühstück bevor es weiter ins Tal runter ging.      Read more

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    • TravelerWalking the Camino
      Day 24

      Villafranca

      July 24, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 90 °F

      Today, after a beautiful, 24k trek through the Cantabrian Mountains, we arrived in Villafranca. This amazing medieval city greeted us with ancient buildings, a cool breeze and an welcoming albergue, where we will spend the night, (see photo below).
      A few words about albergues...
      An albergue is a hostel for pilgrims, or people walking the Camino. It costs from donation- 14 euros for a bed for the night. Albergue Piedra, where we are staying tonight, is one of the nicest so far....(with single beds, without bunks!), but they vary greatly. Here are some examples:
      1. Bathrooms do have showers, but toilet seats, hand soap, paper towels are optional.
      2. Most have bunk beds with a vinyl mattress cover, a sheet optional. This means that you are guaranteed to sweat through your bedding and clothes at night, as air-conditioning or even fans are non existent.
      3. Some have windows, that may or may not open....again, the sweat thing....🥵
      4. We have had between 4 and 50 sleeping in mixed gender dorms each night. Ear plugs help drown out the snoring.
      5. Most have wifi. If not, a bar down the street usually does.
      6. Some have kitchens where we can prepare instant coffee and musceli before we start out at about 5:30am.
      7. All offer scrub sinks and a clothes line or rack, so you can wash your clothes, after showering.
      8. Some offer a communal dinner, where we eat with people from around the world. Last night, French, German, Italian, Spanish and English languages were all represented at our table, with lots of smiling, laughing and varying degrees of understanding. For 10 euros we got a three course meal with wine and bread- delicious!
      All Albergues, although different and unique in their own ways, are always a welcomed site after a long day of trekking!
      Photos: sand pictures with flowers in preparation for St James celebration; lots of medieval churches/buildings; coffee along the way; Paraguay represented at our albergue; Zamora Street sign; ancient insulation; Albergue Piedra- so comfy!
      Love to you all!❤️      Read more

    • TravelerCamino Francés 2022
      Day 26

      Route choices

      August 17, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      In the morning, I started walking when I was ready, Thérèse from France was ready too, and we started together. Jan and Klaus were still packing.
      Thérèse went up the first hill quicker than me, and at the top we were offered to stop for a free coffee. We had just have breakfast, I don't drink coffee, and I was ready to walk. But Thérèse stayed. I thought she'd catch up with me a bit later, but never did.
      Jan and Klaus caught up when we were entering Villafranca del Bierzo. We walked together very little, until we got to the fork:
      The standard route went along the road and river, and was flat and shorter than the alternative.
      The alternative went over a mountain, and rejoined the main route at Trabadelos.
      The boys were doing the easy route, and I was doing the mountain. They were going all the way to Ruitelán today (25k via the short route). Since I was going the longer and harder way, I was planning to stop earlier.      Read more

    • TravelerCamino Frances
      1
      Day 24

      Early morning wake up

      August 23, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      Due to the expected hot weather I started at 5.30 am - 2 h through the mountains in the dark- you hear every little sound in the bushes, I can tell you! 15 more km up and down and then the „Camino duro“ starts- the hart way! 10 km of only uphill climbing! O Cebrero is waitingRead more

    • TravelerCal’s Camino Adventures
      Day 29

      Day 29

      September 21, 2022 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

      Couldn’t go wrong starting off today as it went right passed my door, so i decided to save that part for later 🙄
      Again, it was a chilly start and I set off with my warm coat on.. obviously that didn’t last long as it was a steep start.. it was actually quite a long unexpected uphill with amazing views back down on the Town and surrounding hills.
      About an hour or two in I started to realise I hadn’t passed, or seen anybody else for well over an hour, quite unusual at the beginning of the day.. time to consult the Ninja 😫.. I’m 2km’s off the route it says 😬.. eeek, I’m also up a mountain, way out in the middle of nowhere!!! I may possibly have used up the rest of my available data finding my way back…
      If this had happened three weeks ago, I’d probably have gone into complete panic mode!! I’m a tiny bit proud that I didn’t… serves me right for saying I didn’t think I was walking far enough today 🙄😂
      Today I finished in Vega de Valcárcel, all ready for the climb up to O’Cebreiro tomorrow..
      With an afternoon to kill, it was great to catch up with Robbie on his way past, hopefully doing the climb together in the morning.. hope I can keep up.. first time I’ve said that for a while 😂
      Another lovely meal this evening, although it was a bit weird being the only one there.. hope they weren’t cooking just for me!!!
      Disaster of the day.. hole in my socks ☹️      Read more

    • Eagle Walkers in Spain
      2
      Day 42

      Villafranca del Bierzo

      September 26, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

      What a good walk today, we made it another 13 miles, we are back in wine country, vineyards for miles. Countryside is spectacular with all the colors of fall starting to appear. Large building with car in front is where we are staying tonight... also we are under 200 km to go.Read more

    • TravelerCamino Frances 2022
      2
      11

      Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo

      September 26, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

      We took our time walking to Villafranca and it was cold and then sunny, but beautiful. Our route eventually took us through vineyards and the harvest was in process. I think we like walking through this kind of country best because of the rolling hills.Read more

    • TravelerCamino de Santiago - Frances
      Day 33

      Villafranca

      October 7, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

      We started out early today knowing it would be a long one. We broke 20 miles which seemed totally out of reach a month ago, now it seems almost normal. We are still amazed at the beauty of watching the day awaken while walking through sleeping villages in this amazing country.

      As we entered the town of Ponferrada we stopped across the street from the Templar Castle and enjoyed breakfast at a coffee joint that would be a perfect fit in Chico. As we headed out of the city, the Camino took us through the “good part of town” and we got to see some beautiful properties. This was a big change from the many farming villages we have been walking through.

      About ten miles in, we stopped for lunch at a last ditch place on a very busy street, very tired and hot. The owner took us through the building to a patio in the back that was a total oasis of shade and quiet and served us a great shrimp and avocado salad. Today was a complete win for food!

      From here we headed off for Villafranca to find ourselves walking in a region of rolling hills, covered with wine grapes, showing their fall colors. We had barely seen anyone we knew for the entire day so it was a treat to run into Sara and Andrew in the last town before Villafranca. It was sad to leave them and head off to the next town.

      Our plan was to eat in Villafranca's city center before heading to our hostel and the surprises kept coming. We ran into Sherry and Bryan, from Georgia, who we had not seen since León. We thought they were a day ahead, so it was fun to see them and have dinner together. During dinner, thunder started booming and the sky opened in a downpour! So much for getting to our place dry. Peg was wishing we had left earlier as we were going to get soaked walking the 1 kilometer to our place. Just then I got a text out of the blue from the hostel saying it was raining really hard and asking if we wanted them to come get us. We were going to arrive at our destination dry after all! The Camino provides!
      It was a good day.

      Buen Camino      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Villafranca del Bierzo, 24500

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