Day 13 - September 17

Day 13 - Molinaseca to Las Herrerias. Another great night, this time in Molinaseca which is a wonderfully preserved village with plenty of dining options on the main little old town street. Biggest issue - restaurants close at 4pm for siesta then reopen 8:30pm, way past our bedtimes! Yash, Amy, Christina and I ended up having a few beers and catching up and before we knew it we were at 8:30pm. We found a local spot that served the “daily meal” at 11 euros each for a 3 course meal that was solid. We also splurged on the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu, a Ribeiro del Duero at 30 euros which was excellent.

Hotel we stayed served a unique breakfast that included crepes, toasted bread with Spanish tomato purée with olive oil and large flaked salt, cakes and juices. We rolled out a little later than usual to start the 51km day at 8:30am. Yash decided to leave at 6am and power walk the day as he is recovering from knee issue - the rabbit launched early…

It’s harvest time and we passed one vineyard after another where large crews of local folk were picking the grapes and placing in baskets that were then transferred to trailers hitched to cars.

We passed through 14 villages today and almost all were visitable IMO. I lunched in Villafranca del Bierzo sitting across from a castle and had al dente pasta with 4 cheeses and a coke. Afterwards, I began a 20km uphill run to the final town of Las Herrerais. While the big towns have the power churches, the little ones have simple places of worship. I visited one in Vega de Valcarce that sat on the side of the road. As big as a barn it dates back to 1646 and inside it is intimate, simple with smells of damp thyme or sage. To me, I feel the spirituality more in these smaller churches than the awe and shock of the big chathedrals.

As we headed up the gap in a mountain range we followed the river that flowed down and was the source of the best route through for early travelers. Las Hererrais is a small village located on the river with a Main Street maybe 100 yards with stone building on one side and the river on the other. We are in for cool temps in the mountains and will eat at the only restaurant in town at our Auberge. Thankfully Christina got us private rooms.

Tomorrow we meet up with Jacqueline who finally got their luggage and she will schlep the bags to Sarria where we plan to end our day.

Cheers,

David.