Singing in the Rain...not

Just got into an unusual Albergue in Cacabelois, Spain.  It is on a church compound at the edge of town.  There is a huge semi circle of connected cabins around the church.  Each has two beds.  The bathrooms are in the middle of the semi circle, along with large stone picnic tables and a snack bar area.  We were offered free transport to a restaurant out in the country for a Pilgrim Meal at 6:00 so we decided to do that.  Interesting.

We had a good sleep last night...slept in until 7:00 and it felt good.  They had a very nice breakfast for us in the beautiful stone walled lobby on the first floor.  We were in the attic with a circular stairway to the top.  They had oj, coffee, tea, toast and jam, great fruit, and you could fry yourself a couple of eggs if you liked.  Very nice.

We left around 8:00 and before long it started raining...rained on and off the whole way...about 15 miles.  This area has unusual weather we are told.  There are mountains all around and there is a valley through the middle.  It stays warm and humid here much of the year,  so it was not and humid with our weather gear on.  We keptl stopping to take it off and then put it on again,

We walked from Molinaseca to Ponferrada on nice sidewalks along the main highway. There are some wonderful things to see on the way though town.  The most interesting and most dominate was a huge Castle of the Templar Knights dating to the 15th century. Just amazing.  Two pretty churches and a very impressive clock tower built into one of the gateways of the medieval wall were also on the way. Fortunately it was not raining when we were in town, so we could linger and look around.  

The town of Ponterrada and the surrounding areas seemed quite nice...wealthy to be sure.  Many very nice, large homes with fancy landscaping, some with pools. Was fun to see.  We noticed several school campuses and possibly a university as well as we walked through the town of about 55,000.

We have noticed in the last few days that the leaves are changing color and falling.  In the mountains yesterday most of the ferns had turned yellow/brown and were dried up.  Fall is coming.  Today we walked by many orchards and through many vineyards.  There are palm trees in the lawns and landscaping of the homes.

We took a break when we came to Camponaraya...needed to rest our feet for a few minutes.  So, we sat on a bench and ate a very good ice cream bar with almonds and chocolate coating.  It ended up being our lunch.  We got to our destination here in the old town of Cacabelos about 1:30.  We raced through town to get to the Albergue because it started raining pretty hard.  I am ready or go explore...it is a  very old and very pretty city, built up around one main road through town.  Naturally the rain stopped and it has dried up since we got here!

Can you believe, we have only NINE more walking days and one more day off before we reach Santiago!?!  My right shoe now officially has a hole in it.  We will need to patch it with the duct tape when it dries!  Hope it can make it!

Had a very good supper and an encouraging conversation over pizza tonight with a Canadian couple and a German woman.  Lots of laughter, some talk about feet problems, and great discussion about how the Camino is affecting our lives now and how it may affect them in the future.  We also talked about how people will react to our stories and our enthusiasm over the Camino...or how their reaction to our story will affect us.  I think we see the end coming up and are beginning to think about what it will be like to go home.   Hope that makes sense....better get to my little "chalet" as they call it here, and get to bed.  The same little group is going to breakfast together in the morning at a little place about 2 km up the road.  

Can you tell I like these old Roman bridges??

I couldn't get this guy to talk...

Need a good investment property?  This  place is for sale.

This is the church that hosts the Municiple Albergue. 

This is the entrance to the Albergue...you can faintly see the roof of the cabins down the outside to the right.

Checking out our options for the next day just outside Barb and Dave's room.  Like how we are all color coordinated?  

The following pictures should be first in this post...they are from first thing this morning in Ponferrada.

The Castillo de Los Templarios, a magnificent 12th Century Templar castle.  It was a hazy dark morning - in brighter light the castle would be quite stunning.