Pilgrims on the Way

Following our second breakfast, Rebecca and Francine chat as we walk through the town of Cacabelos. Like many of the towns in the valley of El Bierzo, it’s human-sized, with a very neighbourhood-y feel. It’s almost cozy. To me, this is how towns should be built. Date: 24 April 2016 Place: Cacabelos (Castilla y León, Spain) The morning map:

This is the charming little courtyard of La Moncloa de San Lázaro, where we had our second breakfast in Cacabelos. On the off chance I ever stay in this town, this is probably where it would be. The whole place is just… cozy. Not an albergue, mind you, but a proper hotel, this would be a place for a once-a-week […]

Cacabelos is a bustling town of about 6,000 people. We stopped into La Moncloa de San Lázaro for our second breakfast. This place is a hotel with an attached café/bar, winery, and shop. We spent all too brief a time in this cozy place warming ourselves by the open fire, café con leche in hand. Date: 24 April 2016 Place: […]

For sheer advertising signage acreage, you can’t beat these four (count ’em!) billboards next to the Camino approaching Cacabelos. I’m sure that the Hotel Villa de Cacabelos is lovely, but it’s not really what we were looking for. Particularly at nine o’clock in the morning. And seriously… this is overkill for a gravel road, even if it is on the […]

One of the more unusual signs on the Camino, and not nearly as gaudy as some we’ve seen recently. At first I thought it was one of the ubiquitous markers to fallen pilgrims. It claims that Santiago is 194.5 km away. Is it true? Who knows. The one truism on the Camino regarding distances is that nobody knows what they […]

Francine and Rebecca walk through the El Bierzo countryside, covered in vineyards. This region is famous in Spain for its wines – and they are amazingly good – but you can’t seem to get them outside of Europe. The vines have been pruned back in a way that always makes me think of zombies, thrusting their hands up through the […]

A rare solo selfie, or possibly the portrait of some member of the Gnome species. This is what happens when you don’t shave or trim your beard or moustache for a month or so. I believe on my next Camino I’ll go ahead and carry the extra weight of a razor and a pair of scissors. Date: 24 April 2016 […]

Francine and Rebecca walk past a little chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Solitude. It is connected with a confraternity that marches in holy processions in Ponferrada during Holy Week and Easter. This expression of Catholic piety is found all over northern Spain, both in cities and smaller towns, and it’s a fantastic tradition that I wish we had in […]

We left the albergue right around dawn. I had to duck down a side street to get this photo, just to remind myself (and now you) that Galicia is a Celtic country. I mean, technically, we’re not quite in Galicia yet, but languages and culture rarely gets contained by artificial lines on a map. Date: 24 April 2016 Place: Camponaraya […]