Camino de Santiago | Jenny and Stephen's Travel Adventure

Camino – Villafranca (Day 24)

Date: Thu 30th May
Distance: 31 km
Temperature: Mild/Warm
Mood: Great
Left: Molina Seca 7:45am
Arrived: Villafranca 4:45pm
Santiago de Composela: 185 km
Highlight: Castillo De Los Templarios

Up and out, no breakfast as we had over 30 clicks to cover so an early start was required. Well early for us anyway! First up was the magnificent 12th century Templar Castle. Is this for real? Very much like our sand castles we still make on our beach holidays! Too early to visit, but we needed a stamp for our pilgrims “credentials” so decided on breakfast at a local cafeteria until the Turismo off ice opened. Got our stamp and off we headed for some more spectacular scenery. (As you will see from the other photo’s, spring has certainly sprung in this part of Spain as all the roses have blossomed).

As you do on the Camino, you come across interesting people, today a lady was selling slices of home made cake to pilgrims. How could one resist!

It was a long day and our feet were definitely getting very tired! We finally marched into Villafranca just as it was getting warm! As it turned out, our accommodation was at the other end of town, so another km later we checked in, showered and forced ourselves out for an early diner in the main Plaza under a perfect blue and sunny sky! Great way to finish off the day with diner and a Vino Tinto in a one of the most quaint picturesque towns you can come across! We love it!

If we thought today was big! Early night tonight!

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Camino – Molina Seca (Day 23)

Date: Wed 29th May
Distance: 27 km
Temperature: Freezing cold
Mood: Feeling the adventure!
Left: Rabanal 8:45am
Arrived: Molina Seca 4:15pm
Santiago de Composela: 216 km
Highlight: Cruz de Ferro

We awoke to the sun shinning, but could also hear the wind whipping over our Hostel. A big day awaited us in many ways than one. Today we would reach the highest altitude on the Camino, over 1500m and is marked by a simple iron cross mounted on a weathered pole called Cruz de Ferro. This has become an important symbolic place where pilgrims place a stone or other token at the foot of the cross representing something of significance for them.

No sooner had we stepped out the door of our hostel, we went scurrying back to the warmth and safety to reassess our attire. Time for more layers and full wet weather gear! Take 2 and we were on our way.

Did we say it was cold yesterday? Well today was way colder due to the wind chill. Alison will be happy to know that the walking poles are back in use and are good at keeping the hands warm as long as you keep up a good pace.

A quick pitstop for a hot chocolate and chocolate croissants at a small village before we soon reached the Cruz de Ferro with a light snow falling. (Yes, it was snowing!) The weather was appropriate for the humbling experience shared by us and other pilgrims. The think blanket of fog kept any scenic distractions at bay whilst we placed our stones and tokens at the cross and said our personal prayers. A special pink ribbon was tied to the cross to symbolise a healing prayer for our family in Brisbane. After a few tears (or was that simply the rain or snow flakes caressing the face?) We started the long descent down the mountain.

We passed through a couple of small villages on the way down, but were unsuccessful in purchasing lunch, so we pushed on all the way to Molina Seca. Another lovely village in its own right with it’s own special history. The accommodation gets the thumbs up, but when we were ready for dinner, they had closed up the restaurant (7:00pm). After looking high and low for somewhere to eat we came upon a little general store advertising meals. With our tummies rumbling due to no lunch that day, we took the chance and ended up scoring microwaved frozen meals! As it turned out, they weren’t too bad and our Spanish host was so humble and lovely, that we wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

Early night with another big day ahead!

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Camino – Rabanal (Day 22)

Date: Tue 28th May
Distance: 21 km
Temperature: Icy cold
Mood: Cheerful
Left: Astorga 10:30am
Arrived: Rabanal 4:15pm
Santiago de Composela: 243 km
Highlight: Pilgrims Blessing by Benedictine Monks

We checked out of our wonderful hotel after a very satisfying breakfast and made our way to the cathedral. Unfortunately no photos allowed and no stamp was to be had! The sun was shining but a very icy wind blew. A stamp was secured at the Gaudi Museum and we were on our way.

The path gently rose as we passed through fairly open and at times scrubby scenery. We quickly found our land legs and walked without impediment. The skies were very stormy, however we managed to walk most of our journey without rain, despite being in our full wet weather/cold weather gear. Today has been by far the coldest day yet. We seemed to inch closer to the snow capped mountains and it felt like the wind was blowing directly off them. 4 layers of clothing and 3 types of head gear kept us relatively cosy.

It was a welcome change back to the picturesque (medieval ) villages that we’d missed when riding across the Meseta and we passed through a number of these before reaching our final destination. Due to the late start we ended up with a late lunch that was had on the side of the trail. Rabanal, our stop for the day was only a further 2 km down the road.

After checking in to the Hostel and ordering a nice hot chocolate to warm us up, it was off to the evening Vespers conducted by the Benedictine Monks followed by a nice hearty meal back at the Restuarant attached to our Hostal. We finishing off the evening by returning to the Church for a Pilgrims blessing again conducted by the monks. (One of us now feels the calling!)

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Camino – Astorga (Day 21)

Date: Mon 27th May
Distance: 0 km (Rest Day)
Temperature: Warm
Mood: Relaxed
Santiago de Composela: 264km
Highlight: Sleep in

Just a quick post as it is a rest day! Literally! We are being very spoilt and have a great room with a view over the Plaza! With the bed so comfy, we had a relaxed sleep in before thinking of heading off to see the Cathedral as everything else was closed on Monday! Well we missed the Cathedral. Turns out it is only open between 9-10:30. Looks like a late start tomorrow so we can visit on our way out!

Astorga looks to be a town with lots of hidden treasures and we feel that we will probably miss most of them. We really like the feel to this town and without knowing much about it, it seems to be known for its Chocolates, as every second shop sells Astorga Chocolates. Unfortunately they would weigh too much for us to consider purchasing a supply.

We did a circuit of most of the original township before turning to logistics for the following week. We even managed to book the following 2 nights accommodation over the phone speaking only in Spanish. Not sure how we did it cos we sure cannot speak it! So we will find out in due course if we succeeded or not!

The donkeys have been faithful and served their purpose, but with the mountains ahead of us over the next few days they would have been a major hindrance, especially the one that didn’t like hills!

Now these mountains are at a much higher altitude that what we climbed in the Pyrenees and temperatures in the early morning are sub-zero! So we are bracing ourselves for the next challenge.

Stay tuned.

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Camino – Astorga (Day 20)

Date: Sun 26th May
Distance: 48 km
Temperature: Warm
Mood: Grumpy (due to soulless scenery)
Left: León 11:30am
Arrived: Astorga 5:00pm
Santiago de Composela: 264km
Highlight: Mass at León Cathedral

A sleep-in was in order as we had decided on a visit to the Cathedral at 9:30am before heading off to Astorga. Well wouldn’t you know it. We were treated to Sunday morning mass (which also meant no entrance fees!) We just loved the priests singing with their sound resonating throughout the Cathedral. So soothing!

Straight after, we made a beeline for the closest Patisserie for breakfast and bought Pan (bread) for lunch later. So a very late start for the day knowing we only had less than 50km to cycle and the room booked well before we had even left Australia.

Well although the weather was the warmest to date, the scenery was the worst since we have set out on the Camino (hence the lack of photo stock to choose from). We covered equivalent to two days walking and the majority of it was depressing as we hugged the main motorway N-120! In our case we road on it, whereas the Camino trail runs within meters from it! For a long stretch it runs through very ugly industrial areas, that aren’t just ugly, but also smell! Whilst it did affect our mood, we were thankful of being on bikes to accelerate through this stretch. We wouldn’t think any less of anyone jumping in a taxi to skip the majority of this as we could imagine that it would be soul destroying having to walk nearly 2 days through this!

We also faced more hills on this stretch as we start to move off the Meseta and towards the mountains. One of our Donkeys didn’t enjoy the hills one bit, but preserved and ultimately conquered them all!

We also had a storm front bearing down on us that we only copped a light sprinkling that ultimately gave everything a good soaking after we had checked in for the evening!

Astorga was a welcome relieve from both the rain and the ugliness of the industrial side of León. The hotel that was booked months ago was more than we could hope for. We received a very warm and accommodating welcome and the room has a view over the Plaza that the Hotel faces out on. The room is huge, the bathroom is huge and the bed is huge. We will need to take our headlight torches to find each other in the night!

To top it all off, our backpacks that had made their own journey from Burgos, had arrived ahead of us and were waiting for us at reception!

Polished off a good quality meal with a bottle of red and got a little tipsy which is always entertaining and looking forward to another rest day tomorrow!