Day 1 - Ponferrada to Villafranca

 

Ponferrada to Villafranca

Day 1 - Saturday, April 11 - 36811 steps

So, right from the beginning, plans are down the toilet.  Originally, I had intended to do the Camino Invierno.  My reason for this is because it's a less travelled route and so quieter and more nature-oriented.  However, after talking (well, lots of hand gestures and broken English and broken Spanish) with one of the guys in the room I was in, he indicated that the Invienrno is also not very well supported in terms of places to stay and eat.  Especially in a shoulder season like now.

Camino Invierno: Invierno means Winter in Spanish.  The name does not mean that it is snowy or cold or anything.  Rather it refers to the fact that during the winter time, the Winter Way is a better way to go to avoid the snow and storms on the higher elevations of the Camino Frances.

So, based on his description, I made a last minute decision to do the Camino Frances instead.  This meant that all the reading I had been doing about the Invierno was unnesesssary and instead I was going to do a trail I knew nothing about.

Well, I knew the name of the next town - Villafranca.  I Googled it - about 20km.  No problem!

The next problem was breakfast.  I had water and a few granola bars.  But the municipal albergues don't supply breakfast.  Although they do have kitchens.  Luckily there was a coffee bar / restaurant just across the street - Cafe Rabel.  Well, not luckily, more intentionally.  There tends to be at least one breakfast place wherever there is an albergue.  Breakfast was a coffee (cafe con leche) and a croissant with honey drizzled on it - for 2€!

So, sufficiently fueled, I set out.  Found my first Way marker and start walking.  The path led back across the river towards the town and past the Castillo de los Templarios that I had seen all lit up the night before.  And this fine fellow was out front 👉

Shortly after passing the castle, I met Manuel.  He's a Spaniard and speaks very little English.  Fortunately, he speaks a little French.  And I speak lots of French.  So we managed to have a bit of a conversation.  This was his third year doing the Camino Frances. He did the first 300km the first year, then the next 300 and now he's completing the full distance over the span of 3 years.

I started out photographing every marker I saw.  They're literally all over the place - embedded in sidewalks, on the sides of a buildings, on concrete milestones, on posts.  They can also be just a yellow arrow someone spray painted on the back of a highway sign.  The ubiquitous yellow arrow, showing The Way.

  

There are lots of Churches and Chapels to see along the way.  Usually, if the trail is going to make a turn, it does so at a church or chapel.

And while I was thinking to myself that the trail is very over-indicated, I actually missed one of the markers and lost my Way.  Google helped and I got back on track.

There is lots of wildlife to see too.

This chapel was open and you could go inside the chapel and take photos.

A little further on, I met this guy in the woods on the side of the trail.  He was carving shells and crosses out of wood by hand.  I stopped and talked to him.  He spoke English very well.  Also German and Spanish.  He used to be a stone mason but had trouble finding work, so he's been doing this for the past 17 years!  I bought a wooden shell on a leather strap and wore it around my neck for the rest of my Camino.

The Shell: At this point I should probably talk about the symbol of the shell for the Camino.  Also called The Vieira in Spanish and Coquille Saint-Jacques in French.  It was worn by pilgrims to serve as a utensil for eating, a bowl or cup for drinking water and also as a weapon to defend yourself if needed.  These days pilgrims tend to buy a plastic one for 2€ and hang it from their backpacks.  I opted for the less traditional, but more original (in my opinion) wooden version.  

Another interesting tidbit of information is that 1000 years ago, the Camino was travelled by convicted criminals quite often.  If you were caught and convicted of a crime, you were given the option of walking the Camino instead of serving time in prison.  Sort of a medieval version of community service.  If you returned alive, then you were pardoned.  However, your chances of surviving were about 25% and your biggest threat was disease.

I had lunch at a place called "Stop and Go".  I had been seeing ads for it on the side of the trail all morning.  To me, it felt like it would be some huge place where pilgrims could congregate and relax and eat.  Kind of like a road side truck stop with all the amenities.  When I finally got to it, I walked right past because it was so unassuming.  But they had good huevos and I stopped for lunch.

This photo shows one of those informal Way Markers where someone has taken it upon themselves to paint a big yellow arrow in the middle of the road.  You can also see on the tower a little further in the distance that there is a painted yellow arrow on a sign.  There's also an official way marker too.

 I saw this occasionally in front of houses.  There would be plastic bottles filled with water at the corners of stairs or doors.   The idea is that the sunlight hitting the water causes flashes of light that deter dogs from urinating on the corners of building.








Lots of beautiful countryside, so time for a rest to enjoy it.

b 

And then I arrived in Villafranca.  It has a big fort and a big church and lots of hilly streets.  I checked into the municipal albergue and was about to have a nap when one of my room mates appeared, asking if I had the WiFi password.  Her name was Ellen - from Scotland - and she had been walking since the beginning of the Camino Frances - day 36 of walking.

I went out and found dinner at pilgrim prices (7 euros for a pasta dinner).  Then I went back to my bunk to have a nap.  Which turned into me waking up 3 hours later at 9:00pm when everyone else was asleep. I got up quietly and went to have a shower - this seems to be turning into a pattern.