Day 25 - Molinaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

Today we had 31km to do according to the book. It looked pretty flat, but it was going to be hot so we set off earlier than yesterday about 6.45am.

Molinaseca was beautiful as we left, the sun came up behind us.  




The start of the walk was along the road and we had the company of quite a few pilgrims. Quite soon though, we were off the main road and walking through a village on the way to Ponferrada, where we stopped for breakfast opposite the castle.







From there we walked through a couple of villages, stopping for a drink in one and then onto Camponaraya for a  lovely lunch by the clock tower. 







All six of us continued to Cacabelos at 23+km where stopped for a rather delicious icecream in a beautiful hotel. 



Mitch decided that was enough for his feet for the day and waited for a taxi. The rest of us pushed on, but suffice to say Mitch's decision was a good one!!!

According to the map we had about 8km to go. It was very hot by this stage and the route was alongside a road, which somehow always feels hotter! 



We finally started to move away from the road, but Fiona noticed we were being taken an alternative route. We thought it would be better as it was through vineyards away from the road.  We went through a quaint village and the on to Villafranca, but it was long and added a couple of kilometers which was tough at this stage. It was very undulating and extremely hot, so we stopped often to drink and cool down in what shade there was. 




Finally, Villafranca came into view. We had done over 33km, it wasn't the flat route we had expected, and it had been pretty hot for a lot of it but we had managed! 






Showers and dinner, with a special bottle of wine, and bed was all we could manage!!


Today's route...







Comments

  1. Anonymous3 July 2025 at 13:54

    Well done everyone. Beautiful photos Mairi, take care all of you G xx

    ReplyDelete

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