Author: Thom

The best part about Cacabelos was meeting up with our old friend Santiago from Columbia. I met him back on my first or second day walking, but we hadn’t seen him at this point since León. With this photo, we will close out this long and difficult day and start fresh on the next one on the morrow. Date: 23 […]

The municipal albergue in Cacabelos is absolutely unique. It consists of tiny, one room cabins arranged in a semi-circle around the back of this old church. It’s a pretty neat setup, but I will never stay there again. It’s at the very end of the town, and you have to walk back almost a kilometer to the center of town […]

The village of Cacabelos – when we finally got into it – had a distinctly modern, suburban look to it. It was almost six in the evening at this point, and we were overwarm, tired, and cranky. Fortunately, the albergue was not too far off. Date: 23 April 2013Place: Cacabelos (Region of El Bierzo, Province of León, Castilla y León, […]

Although we have long since passed a sign announcing the village of Cacabelos, we had yet to see anything resembling a bar or café. Fortunately, there was a public fountain. We took full advantage of it in our attempt to cool down. Date: 23 April 2013Place: Cacabelos (Region of El Bierzo, Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)Today started: Molinaseca […]

This photo was taken just after 5:30 in the evening on a day so hot that I’m pretty sure we were both suffering from heat exhaustion. And now we’re road walking? Ugh! Still, just 1.3km until Cacabelos, which we had suddenly decided was our stopping point for the day. Date: 23 April 2013Place: between Camponaraya and Cacabelos (Region of El […]

We haven’t seen much in the way of vineyards since we left La Rioja. Like those points far to the east, El Bierzo is wine country. And what wines! So very tasty, and so very difficult to obtain outside of Spain. Like the vines in La Rioja, these are very much in the “zombie hands emerging from the earth” phase […]

Given the heat wave we’re struggling with here in the PNW, it seems appropriate that at this stage of our 2013 Camino adventure, we were struggling with exactly the same thing. Heat makes me stupid, and heat makes me slow. Francine, who was only walking her fourth Camino day, would have struggled anyway, but add to that the heat, and […]

We struggled on in the heat of the day. We were slow, and we were cranky, but this odd sign unaccountably cheered me up. Although we were not yet in Galicia proper – and Galicia, as the locals will never tire of reminding you, is a Celtic country – we were definitely in its cultural orbit. Three years later, we […]

Since nothing was open in Columbrianos except for a small pastry shop, we pushed on. At about a quarter after three, we found an open bar in the village of Fuentes Nuevas and stopped in for a tasty cold beverage. In Spain, the local bars and cafés typically only carry one kind of beer, so you don’t say “cerveza” to […]