19th – 20th May 2024 El Acebo to Ponferrada

A lovely breakfast had been left out for us to use in the morning – 2 slices each of delicious, although very heavy, toast and jam along with pod coffee.  It was going to be another cold day although the day started with some blue sky.

Steve had been reading the blogs and there are a lot of warnings about the descent to Molinaseca and we decided to take the recommended route along the main road after Riego de Ambros before taking the track into Ponferrada. 

The walk down to Riego de Ambros was lovely and we decided to stop and have a coffee but couldn’t find anywhere until we spotted a sign for a bar.  Surely, they must have coffee!  It turned out to be a restaurant and the owner had started cooking for lunch and the smell was incredible (it was only onion, celery and capsicum at that stage).  We asked about it and he said he was making Arroz Caldosa Marinera but it was at least 2 hours away – what a pity we didn’t have time to wait.  Such a lovely friendly man but we had to keep going.

 Down the road, occasionally moving off when the cars came past, we passed some incredibly old chestnut trees, often cut down with a base diameter of about 1.5-2m and with new trees growing from the old base, such an amazing sight.  We chatted about the area and its profusion of supplies for the local communities.  Stone from the quarries, local wood and soil that appeared to be able to sprout all sorts of goodies.

We finally reached Molinaseca – distance wise a lot more taking the road but a far more preferable route.  Even so, Steve’s knee had become quite sore so we stopped for an early lunch after crossing the Roman bridge. 

I was very happy as I saw pasta on the menu, and for once, asking for mucho caliente actually got me seriously hot pasta which was incredibly tasty and just what I needed after a few days with very little to eat.  Steve had his usual jamon bocadillo – don’t know what he is going to do when we are back home – he might just have to go to the market every now and then to get a fix.  Don’t think we will be able to find anything like the delicious bread rolls they have here in Spain though.

On once more before coming to the sign before Ponferrada for the Roman Fountain.  It is only about 250m off the Camino but is certainly an interesting place to visit.  The water, while not potable, is providing a consistent supply.  It is quite fascinating to think how old this actually is and how well built.

The approach to Ponferrada is quite a long one – over the bridge we went and up into the town before passing the old pilgrims’ hospital and emerging onto the road with the castle opposite.  We wandered up and through the town to reach our accommodation down a side lane just before the archway.  Our room on the second floor has a small balcony – perfect for stringing up our small clothesline!  Really hot showers and washing done and hung out we headed down to the icecream shop/bar and sat and people watched for about an hour after having a lemon filled “donut” with a scoop of walnut and cheese icecream which was delicious. 

Steve had done some research and we decided to go back to a curious little bar/café opposite the castle for some dinner.  This little place was so interesting and wherever you looked there was something different; Disney characters, a giraffe wearing a pretty hat and tutu, a mirror shaped like an eye with eyelashes, phones, ET, Pinocchio etc. It was a feast for the senses and we loved watching the children having such an amazing time.  The house salad was delicious and Steve loved his burger. 

We realised that the castle is not open tomorrow (our rest day) so now we need to make a decision – do we wait for the castle to be open at 10am on Tuesday and then taxi part of the way or do we just continue walking.  I suspect we will visit the castle as it is a fascinating place and I know that Steve loves all these things and really, we will not be back here again and he will have lost his chance to see it.

We headed back to the room and went to bed.  Unfortunately the mattress is very hard so I tried to pad it up using another blanket but wondered what sort of sleep I would have….. as it turns out sleep was a bit different as I kept waking up with my hands asleep!  Tossing and turning didn’t seem to help much so I think I will need to ask for another blanket tomorrow night!

We headed downstairs to the cafeteria for freshly squeezed orange juice (delicious), toast and coffee before heading out to get more electrolytes, bananas, money, some dinner we can heat up in the microwave downstairs and some salad.

It was a lovely morning and it was great to see so many people out and about.  The supermarket was busy and I couldn’t believe there was an entire lane of fresh breads not packaged and the worker came over with a trolley full of more “baguettes” and was refilling the shelves.  The smell was overwhelming. 

It was then back to the room to catch up on about a week of my blog as it has been difficult to get to it some days.  We had also bought a bolognaise empanada which was still hot and we ate that in our room before hitting the computer.

Steve headed downstairs to do some people watching while I got up to date and then we headed down to the kitchen to heat up our pasta before returning to our room to have our salad and watch some television before bed.