Day 27 - Foncebadon to Ponferrada (27km)

Today it rained. We are almost 5000 feet up in the mountains and we woke to mist and drizzle. The lack of visibility reminded me very much of time spent in the Lake District as we climbed the few hundred feet to the nearby summit and one of the Camino's more famous features: the 'Cruz de Ferra' ('Iron Cross'), a five metre high wooden pole topped with an iron cross and surrounded by a massive cone of stones. The stones are deposited by pilgrims and many have been carried from the start of their journey; they are meant to represent the depositing of the burdens you shoulder in life and many are accompanied by lots of small mementos - notes, photographs, personal trinkets - which for me were more poignant and meaningful than the idea of the stone pile and what it signifies.

Cruz de Ferra

From here it was a long descent through the wet and the mist with only the features that appeared in the gloom giving a sense of how dramatic the views would be if it were not for the cloud. After a quick coffee in the small village of Acebo (in the second cafe we passed, always the best according to a theory of Gale's) we eventually descended below the cloud. We were following the road for surety of footing - the track largely paralleled it anyway - as it hairpinned its way down the mountain through steep sided hills until eventually we entered the small mountain town of Molinaseca. We admired its church and old buildings nestled in the river valley, crossed its Roman bridge and walked the length of its long narrow high street which, as we looked back on leaving, framed the mountains that previously had been obscured in cloud.

Approaching Molinaseca

To Ponferrada

We are now three miles further up the valley in the charming and colourful centre of Ponferrada. It has a castle, churches and a series of neat plazas, with up market shops and cafes, all connected by narrow lanes. And in all directions you seem to get views of the mountains. We wanted to relax and so ate as early as we could, although not as early as we would have liked; one of the issues you face in larger Spanish towns on the Camino is that you turn up tired and hungry late-afternoon when most places are shut and three or four hours before anything starts to come alive, which is the time you want to be relaxing in readiness for the next day.  I am now enjoying the comfort of another private room before a planned longer walk tomorrow.

Ponferrada

Ponferrada

Ponferrada Castle