More Cacabelos to Villafranca

These two really wanted to come down and play with the pilgrims!

I want to stop and smell every single wild Rose!

The sculpture studio looks like it is closed. Lots of trash around but I still love looking through the fence.

Municipal Albergue Villafranca 

Coronación Virgin de las Augustias Cacabelos 2018

The church in Cacabelos us was decorated with thousands of flowers. Every aisle, every corner , every ledge, was covered with flower petals. The perfume strong and evocative. Sorry, these are in no particular order:

To Villafranca del Bierzo 2018

What a wonderful walk today! The weather was cool but dry. The walking was flat except for a few rolling hills.

I had breakfast in Cacabelos and enjoyed seeing this corn during while I ate. 

The storks and the wildflowers both were showing off their colors.

The vineyards were lush as usual.

Casa San Nicolas and Casa Blanquita Molinaseca 2018

We’re staying at two new places this year. Linda and I are sleeping at Casa San Nicholas. This is my room.

The other five Peregrinas are at Casa Rural Blanquita, a beautiful newer rental in the middle of the village. 

Both houses were very nice and quite comfortable and I would stay in both again. I’m not sure of the cost for staying in Casa Blanquita because Antonio from Casa Reloj arranged a special price for me when his workers mistakenly double booked his house.

Tomorrow we will taxi to Ponferrada and walk to Villafranca. 

More Molinaseca 2018

There is so much symbolism in this retablo - I spent a lot of time studying it. Just beautiful!

Lunch!

If you look very closely and enlarge the photo, you see quite an old man and woman planting the garden together. He is hoeing and she is putting in the new plants. The garden was huge, big enough to feed the two of them all year.  I watch them work together for some time, and it was like a dance. 

I loved seeing this healthy young olive tree growing from the stump of an ancient tree. 

There was so much to see in this village. I’m a little sorry I won’t be back again.

To Rabanal then Molinaseca 2018

Storks

Dinner at El Refugio

To Molinaseca:
Linda‘s foot was worse this morning and my chest wasn’t any better so we taxied for one last time today, as this is one of the most difficult days on this stretch of our Camino. The ride was absolutely stunning! Heather was blue mean and so the hills were just colored with pink and yellow flowers. I’m hoping that some of the girls took photos because I was in able to take photos from the Taxi.

Molinaseca is a beautiful little village with so much character!  Here are a few of my favorite photos from today’s walk around the village

To Astorga 2018

We had about a one hour taxi ride to Astorga this morning. We are staying at the Astor Plaza Hotel, which is quite nice and has some character.

I’m staying in yet another day, but I’m feeling much better so I plan on walking tomorrow. While I wait for photos from the girls I’ll tell you what happened to me today at dinner.

I had dinner at the restaurant downstairs tonight. I also had an experience I’ve never had before.

I ordered a hamburger, which by the way tasted great.  A big old slab of recognizable beef took up half my plate, large french fries and grilled cheese on the other side. A burger fit for a queen!

However, about half way through it I felt something sharp and found a piece of glass or plastic about 1/2 inch by quarter inch in my burger. 

I should’ve taken a photo but didn’t think about it until later.

I showed the shard to the waitress, who was horrified and she quickly identified it as a piece of plastic from the container that the meat came in. They asked me if I wanted something else to eat and by that time I had already eaten half the burger. So I said no and just proceeded carefully. 

I may or may not have swallowed another tiny piece of plastic, it could’ve been my imagination. 

When it came time to pay they would not except payment which was very nice — so  all turned out well in the end at least for now. 

Hopefully if It was just a tiny piece of sharp plastic my gastric juices will make quick work of it. I chomped down an extra piece of bread in the hopes it would contain the plastic