Day Twenty-six - Ponferrada - Villafranca Del Bierzo - 24km

We sat outside in the hotel bar watching the Spain versus Netherlands football match last night. We though it was going to be a noisy evening but everyone was very quiet!!!

The walk out of Ponferrada this morning took us through some varied suburbs and once again into the countryside and through tiny villages that seem to survive purely for the benefit of pilgrims.

The landscape has changed again and hills are all around us - we can still see snow-covered mountain tops, which is very strange when we are sweltering in the heat.

Villafranca is built on hills and the decent into the middle of the village was on steep, cobbled roads so it was lovely to reach our hotel and to find we have a bath to soak our battered feet!

We will explore the village tomorrow (that should take about 5 minutes) and then we shall have a good rest before we start climbing mountains again on Monday.

The 12th century Knights Templar castle in Ponferrada.

We went to a bar called The Chelsea Bar.
It seemed to have some of our record collection on it's walls!

Leaving Ponferrada this morning.

It was quite a climb for so early in the day!

This woman came out of her house, swung
her scythe over her shoulder and set off down the road.
Disappointingly she wasn't wearing a black cloak!

There are loads of stray cats.

A bagpipe 'factory'!

Is it just the bit hanging off the building that's for sale?

The scenery has changed again - we are back in wine country!

Lunch in Cacabelos.

An old olive press.

We're getting closer.

An endless hike along the road for a few kilometres.

These beautiful old buildings are just about beyond repair.

An uphill climb in 32 degrees heat.
We made our way from shade to shade and our
bottles of water got very warm.

A beautiful house on a hill surrounded by vineyards.

The village of Villafranca - surrounded by very steep hills/mountains!