Molinaseca to Cacabelos

Today was...wonderful. Beautiful. Gorgeous scenery...we were absolutely glutted on blues and greens and mountains and vineyards and sky. Gorgeous walking.

Last night, after our foray in the library (where Christa DID manage to find me), we wandered back into Molinaseca for dinner and ran into German Boys II. We have found two new ones, both named Stefan. In some ways, they are very like the other two, which makes me laugh at odd moments...but in case F&KK are reading this, in NO way do they replace the two we had before (whom we still hope will catch up with us at some point!!). Christa noted that it was funny that we had four people at the dinner table last night and only two names between us...two Stefans and two Christa-Christines. Ha ha. Then we decided that it we couldn´t deal with two Stefans and we had to re-name them. My job, as usual. So when they mentioned that one of their principle debates as they walk is whether or not the value of 80´s hair band music is compromised by their ridiculous hair and outfits, and that another was whether or not Bon Jovi is the best band EVER (duh), I dubbed one Jon (Bon Jovi) and the other Eddie (Van Halen). And life goes on.

They talk about this German drinking song called Santa Maria, which they won´t translate for me, but apparently is quite explicit, so, heretofore, to avoid confusion, they will be the Santa Maria boys (to distinguish them from the German boys, Felix and Kasey Kahne). Postscript...StefanJonBonJovi vaguely resembles Ryan Newman. =)

Anyway...we had a wonderful late dinner, since our albergue didn´t close till 11pm and they didn´t know when theirs closed. Note: In Spain, when you order fish, the fish arrives with every single part given to it by God, to include skin, fins, tail, and HEAD. Um. Okay. I managed. And decided not to order fish anymore (it doesn´t seem to have a fuel-carryover the next day anyway).

So back to the albergue, where we had the good fortune to try to get ready for bed, with stuff scattered EVERYWHERE, in the pitch black. PITCH black. I dropped a lot of things, of course, which always makes me very popular with my fellow pilgrims in the room. The municipal albergue (ours) in Molinaseca has several bunks outside on the porch...which on a warmer night would´ve been awesome, but no takers last night.

We were (again) among the last to leave this morning. Christa says she hates to shake someone awake, but when she told me tonight that she wants to be walking tomorrow by 6:30am, I told her she´s either gonna have to either do that or set off firecrackers in my nostrils. Problem: NO hospitalero this morning and NO, I mean NO TOILET PAPER. Grrrrr.... We got on the road at about 8am.

The long walk into Ponferrada that would´ve been hellacious yesterday was rather pleasant this morning. We met up with a Quebecois (?) named Marie who was very nice, and saw our French savior from Foncebadón as well...and two American kids I first met back in Boadilla who seem to have come to Spain to read books. They were reading books in the albergue this morning when we were leaving, and when we got to the castle in Ponferrada, there they were, sitting outside it, reading books again. Um...far be it from ME to discourage anyone from reading, but...don´t we have a cathedral in Santiago to get to...?

Anyway. Nice walk in. LONG walk in. We hit a sweet shop for breakfast and found the Santa Maria boys again. Like most of what we order to eat, we took a gamble on the pastries we ordered and they were okay. But it was an ice cream shoppe, too, and when I saw a girl we know from Sweden with a cup of chocolate and mint, I had to do it too. So the ice cream stop happened today before there were even four numbers on the clock. Ha haaa....

On to the castle. We didn´t go in. We heard it wasn´t that great inside, and I don´t think it was even open, but it looked AWESOME. Typical castle...gray stone, battlements, round towers, everything. Loved it. Hit the square afterwards and found the red all-purpose-multi-purpose shawl I´ve been looking for since Burgos...Skip had a green one I kept stealing. The red one spent the rest of the day pirate-style on my head. I don´t know if I looked badass, but I felt like it, so as far as I´m concerned, everyone wins. (Like I say about my hair and having no makeup and wearing clothes with God-knows-what stained on them at this point, -I- don´t have to look at me!! HAH.)

We made short work of Ponferrada and were heading out of it before too long. OH...stopped in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Encina (oak tree) to see a statue of the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus...apparently it was hidden inside an oak tree by Bishop Toribio, and when it was found and the tree was to be cut down, the infant Jesus apparently began to weep. Interesting stuff, and beautiful church.

Enough of Ponferrada. We moseyed out, mostly taking our time. We were only going 22k...had all day to do it...no particular hurry, doing a lot of looking around in the towns we passed through. Saw another little church outside of Ponferrada with a beautiful carved oak altarpiece. I´m not actually sure I´m using the word altarpiece correctly...this was the back wall of the church, behind the altar, which is usually in gold metal and includes paintings and all kinds of figures...well, this one was wood and it was gorgeous and a welcome break from all the gilt ones. We sat outside it for a while and looked back at the city of Ponferrada, where we could still see the steeple of the basilica and the castle and the mountains behind.

A word about the Montes de León...the ones back behind Molinaseca, which we descended yesterday. Neither Christa nor I have any particular memories of climbing that mountain. We must have, because we sure as hell went DOWN it yesterday!! But we hardly noticed the climb the day before!! We had some ups, certainly, but they didn´t feel like MOUNTAIN ups. So, future pilgrims, take heart. We still have one mountain left in front of us...which will probably be a short day ending in O Cebreiro...apparently it´s supposed to be a tough one and John says the sunrise and sunset are awesome from there, so we want to make that a stopping point.

Back to the walk. The vineyards are back. We went through a little town called Camponaraya and stopped and had a long, leisurely lunch of...PIZZA!! It was pretty good, but mostly, we were so happy it wasn´t a bocadillo that it was even better. We´d been sure it would rain today, but the sky cleared, so even though we sat under a canopy, we kept going out into the middle of the plaza to sit on the concrete when we weren´t actually eating. The summer weather reminds me of Northern Cal...big difference between sun and shade. One minute you´re dying for shade and the next minute you´re cold and you want the sun again.

Onward. More vineyards. A little wine joint outside Camponaraya offered a glass of wine to passing pilgrims...apparently, it´s traditional to ask the woman there in Spanish, ¨Could you spare a glass of wine for a pilgrim dying of thirst?¨ It was pretty good stuff!! After we left, we had a beautiful walk down a country road with lots of farmland on each side...stretching out to little villages (Ponferrada´s suburban sprawl) and up to the blue mountains beyond. We passed some cornfields that were pretty ripe and had to fight to resist the urge to pinch a few ears of corn for dinner tonight. =)

As we walked into the last stretch of vineyards and aspen groves, we started to see beautifully handcarved wooden signs delineating the road to Santiago, and one of them had a sign that said Santiago - 195 km. We started hollering and yelling and cheering, just the two of us, out in the middle of this vineyard!!! It was hysterical. Then we stopped and looked at each other and wailed, ¨But that means it´s almost over!!!¨ More hollering and yelling and wailing. We´re idiots. =)

Along the way, we found another walnut tree, and Christa wrote Brad´s name across the road, just in case he was behind us for some reason. Ha ha.

Anyway...aspen groves, vineyards, farmland, and finally, Cacabelos...today´s goal. It was just past four when we entered the village, but it´s LONG and took FOREVER to find the albergue!! We had to go through the new part of town, across a river, through the old part of town, and finally to the town church. It´s a really cool albergue. The book said it was built ¨around¨ the church, which I didn´t get till I saw it. But it is. There´s a tile courtyard that surrounds the church, and the rooms are built like a U-shape of bungalows around it. They´re divided into little two-bed rooms, and there´s a sitting area covered in tables and washing sinks and drying racks in the middle. And the church is in the middle. It´s really cool!! I like it a lot. Everyone sits in the middle and talks. We met some Canadians and another Swede and found the Santa Maria boys. Hit the showers and wandered into town for dinner, and after checking out five or six different places, we ended up in this place with an internet café attached to it...where I am now. (The internet at the albergue is free, but also doesn´t work, so....)

Dinner was nice. Christa, me, Marie, the Santa Maria boys, and an East German I met a few days ago in Mazarife named Yurigan (NO idea if I spelled that right).

Basically, it was just a really, really chilled out, relaxed day. NO hurry...and with a decreased distance, we got to look around a lot and enjoy things because we weren´t trying to get 30km before the heat got too intense. Mind you, we miss Skip terribly, and we hope to catch him before Santiago if we can, but he´s a man on a mission and he´s probably walking longer than we are each day...he´s only 8k ahead, but still. Barring some kind of injury (knock on wood), we´ll have to catch him in Santiago.

My toe blisters are holding. Compeed is straight from God himself. Christa ended up with a heel blister today that looked like a grape. It was obscene. I thought she was budding another, smaller version of herself. Ha ha. And two days without the packs made us soft...our shoulders were KILLING us again. Must find the bricks someone undoubtably snuck into the bottom of my bag....

To anyone in our gang reading this: Hank, Al, Mimi, Jocelyn, Skip, Yasmeen, Felix, Kasey...I´m hoping we´ll all be at Sunday mass in Santiago on Aug 10. I know Skip and Christa and I plan to be there...hope to see you all.

No plans for tomorrow yet. Christa´s not letting us set an ending point, but I´m guessing it´ll be Vega de Valcarce or Ruitelán. If the next day is the climb to O Cebreiro, we´ll make it a super short day...it looks STEEP.

All for now...time´s up. Hope to hear from people. The inbox is looking scarce. Love you all.