We stayed to tour the castle that opened up at 10am. It extended our rest day giving us the time to reorganize our packs and have cafe con leche before starting our day. Here is a picture from the castle looking down on our hotel.

Carol, this is where your first night wlll be! Here are a few more from inside the castle.

We stopped in Camponaraya for lunch and we can not seem to pass a Pasteleria-so don’t think of losing weight on this trip.

To be honest, today was hard. Even though it was only a 15 km walk it was on sidewalk and roadways which exasperated our aches and pains. To get us motivated, rick said there was a treat a mile ahead. There was two. Yup a vineyard to fast wine and to walk through.

We made it to Cacabelos. It was here that I took extra time to think and to thank for my friends and family back home. My love and respect continues to grow with each step.

Today is a rest day. We took a leisurely 6.5km walk into Ponferrada and treated ourselves to a hotel. It is a beautiful hotel right across from Castillo de Los Templarios, a 12th century Templar castle. It is closed on Monday so we are going to take the time to tour it in the morning.

We first had coffee out side the hotel at the tables you can see in front. The next two pictures are looking out from those tables.

. Took advantage of the day, walked around, ate and then ate some more.

. We attended the 8pm mass and at the end the priest called up all the pilgrims for a blessing-all in Spanish, but we felt every word.

Oh yea……..today (June 1) was a 7 hour, 20 km decent and we r still not completely down. For all my JOI family, take a little bit of Kili from base camp to millennium, add the 5 miles of Marcy and a pinch of the Canyon – without the hat and you got our day. For those of us with blisters it was a new experience and not a pleasant one, but the sights along the way helped a great deal.

We left Fancebadon around 730am to have breakfast at Cruz de Ferro- one of the symbols of the Camino

Every pilgrim stopped to place a stone, say a prayer, and take a picture. The pile I am standing one is filed with messages written on stones. It was awe inspiring and little did I know how much I would need that for the rest of the day.
Our first stop was in Manjarin- ok wait for it – population 1.

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You can see him in the white knight Templar robe talking to Rick. He serves coffee and sells some Camino memorabilia
We continued our decent down through the ullage of Acebo.

Yes, in the picture you can see our path below and the city of Ponferrada In the horizon. We decided to use a rest day and break up the next two days into shorter hikes and stay in the town before Ponferrada, Molinaseca