Ponferrada to Villafranca

After yesterday’s marathon mountain stretch today was so much easier. I slept from 9.30 through to 7.30 without waking once, something I can’t recall doing since childhood, and felt fully renewed this morning. There was a good breakfast too with scrambled eggs and bacon. The distance from Ponferrada to Villafranca was for the first time ever less than described, probably because I had had to walk another 3k yesterday to get to my accommodation on the very edge of Ponferrada.
We walked through several small villages, and then vineyards before Villafranca appeared nestled in the hills. It’s an idyllic place on the confluence of the Rio Búrbia and the Rio Valcarce which my hostel room overlooks. The population is just over 3,000 but it feels very busy and with enough churches and monasteries for a town ten times the size. Apparently medieval pilgrims who for whatever reason where unable to walk to Santiago where able to receive absolution at the Iglesia de Santiago at the entrance to the town and receive a Compostela – the document that certifies you have completed the Camino. These days you are entitled to it so long as you have walked the final 100km or from Sarria, where I should be in two days.