Villafranca del Bierzo

JIM:   We had a rest day in Ponferrado and it was interesting. Many of us hated to stop walking as we are in the habit of continuing on. But it was good. We stayed at a lovely albergue with a delightful hostess named Esperante. The bunks were tall however,and the people there were loud so not much sleep for me.

  Food in this area has been good but wine only ok. I had a revuelta consisting of scrambled eggs with bacon in a cylinder for lunch. It was good with great presentation. Then last night we had a Galician specialty of front leg of pig with peppers followed by veal,also a specialty. Excellent. It was Dave,Dan,Deon and I today for lunch, we had a lentil soup with chorizo with veal again followed by helado or ice cream. Fabulous. With wine and water for 11 euros!

  I am not so enamered with the menzia grape. I have had perhaps 4-5 different Bierzo wines over the last several days and they seem a bit acidic and not well balanced. We ordered a bottle of the best bierzo last night(8euros) and it was only ok. Had one at lunch today and it had interesting spice. Tasting the grapes in the vinyard also seems to deliver a large variety of tastes.

   We walked out of Ponferrada at 730.still dark. Probably took us 5-6 km to get out of town. We walked from village to village with lovely houses often made of rock. Our path took us through some rural areas of vinyard after vinyard.really beautiful! Of course I had to taste some of them. We arrived in the town of Villafranca at about 2 or so.

  A big hike tomorrow over a mountain after 25 km today.

   Buen camino