Acebo to Ponferrada - 17 Km
Today we hiked down the mountain to a larger town = 60,000 people. The mountain trails were beautiful but rocky and technical to navigate. Legs and body feel good but our feet get so sore, especially on the super rocky terrain.
As we neared Ponferrada we had some crappy walking through the suburbs and on the roads. This was a rude awakening after hiking up and down the beautiful and quiet mountain passes for the last few days. On our way into town we stopped at a farmacy and picked up some blister stuff, electrolyte mix for our water bottles and sunscreen. The sunscreen reminds me to mention that we have had only two rain days and lots of sun! We are so lucky! It is cold in the morning and we wear our down jackets but strip down to tshirts by the afternoon.
So finally arriving in Ponferrada, we arrive to amazing views of two church steeples and a castle. The guidebook described that the castle was built and inhabited by the nights templar, who was in charge of overseeing the safety and well being of pilgrims on this same route a thousand years ago! We took a very speedy tour of the restored castle (they were closing in an hour). Solomon was literally running to see the various attractions. It was amazing! The castle was built in the early 1100s.
We have a nice place tonight overlooking the castle with a very rare bathtub for soaking sore legs & feet!!!
Tomorrow we hope to have recovered a little bit after a shorter day today. Many people that started a few hundred Km before us are regularly doing 20-30 Km. We have are averaging a little bit shy of 20 Km but hope to be getting acclimated to some longer days soon to make up some time.
No comments:
Post a Comment