Day 12 ~ 17th August 2000

Molinaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

We ate a fantastic breakfast in the communal dining room, and chatted to other pilgrims, one chap had walked the Camino 25 years before and told us about all the changes that had taken place. Carol helped out a fellow cyclist by loaning him her pump.

This was the "fiesta del agua", so we waited for all the soaking to cease before setting off. It seems the purpose of the game is soak as many other people as possible, after all this everyone shares a cup of hot chocolate.

After climbing out of Molinaseca, we enjoyed some pleasant downhills to Ponferrada. While chatting with a bank teller, he told us jokingly, that now we had crossed the mountains we were no longer in Africa, this was Europe!

We were making good progress along the NV1, and decided to take a detour along some quieter roads through Cacabelos. There were some lovely winding roads, passing by some beautiful trout filled streams. It was now a hard slog climbing through to Villafranca del Bierzo.

We had a recommendation to eat at La Charola, and after a very long wait we were finally rewarded with an incredibly large meal, we left enough to feed two or three more people.

We had planned to stay in an hotel, but yet again we found it nigh on impossible to find somewhere to stay. Eventually, a friendly assistant at the tourist office phoned around and finally found us a room in someone's attic bedroom.