Camino 2016: Via de La Plata Day 27 - Molinaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

Sunday April 24, 2016
Today was a beautiful day the sky was clear, the birds were singing and I was out early on the road. Quite a lot of road walking today. I felt good as I headed out on a day I plan to be about 30km.

As the sun came up it first lit up the mountains, some still with snow and the view across the valley was very pretty with just a few low clouds drifting across. It was cold but promised to be a great day weather wise

I knew to expect it but it still came as a shock to see so many peregrinos on the road. Some walking in ones and twos, some in groups with day packs having had their main pack transported for them.

We went through some extended suburbs but the route was very well marked, sometimes with these signs. I am not sure why the standard yellow arrows were not used.

Into Fonferrada with its old buildings and its Templar Castle.

I didn't tour the castle as I have learned that I can't be a pilgrim and a tourist but I stopped for a coffee and tostadas since I had not had any breakfast before leaving.

Then out into the suburbs, along the river and out into the country. It was disappointing to see how much graffiti there is everywhere here. Even the Camino direction signs have been modified with graffiti in some places. No pictures of this.

Then through some villages with their traditional church towers, some with storks nesting on them

The villages have some very nice well maintained houses and some that look ready to fall down. I remember these from my 2013 Camino. They were for sale then and are still for sale. I don't think they will last much longer without some fixing up.
Thr problem is that are very few jobs in the villages except farming the family small farm and the young people move to the cities to find work leaving just the old people to continue to manage the farms. As they get older everything falls into disrepair since the small farms are no longer viable.

Then out into pretty wine country. The grape vines are just beginning to show new shoots and wine is a major product of the Bierzo region.

The next town was Cacabelos. In 2013 I had stopped here for the night in a rather uncomfortable albergue and Christa and Ute had met Werner and I here. The town is prettier than I remember it and in the meantime the old albergue has closed and a couple of new ones have opened.

But the plan today was to reach Villafranca del Bierzo. A pretty town in a valley between the mountains we will start to enter tomorrow and cross the next day.

Here is a view as I approach the town with one of the several churches.

Some of the fruit trees in the gardens are in flower and very pretty as I walk by.

On the way into town I passed this sign on a house but it is Sunday - sorry Christa!

For the first part of tomorrow's stage I have a choice. The high road or the low road. Last time we took the low road since it was rainy and mist on the high road. It stayed mostly along the side of the road and was not very interesting. This time the weather should be beautiful so I plan to take the high road. It goes up very steeply from just by the albergue. You can see the two options in this picture. The high road with beautiful views goes up steeply past the car on the right.

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