Acebo to Ponferrada: September 23, 2014: Day 24
We left again this morning in the rain and descended a steep rocky trail. It was formed from a bedrock of slate which is very slippery when wet. We heard that yesterday they had to take someone off the mountain in an ambulance because of a fall in the rain. We descended slowly and carefully.
In a couple of hours we came to a small town nestled in the valley of mountains and stopped in a restaurant for fresh squeezed orange juice and split a chocolate croissant. It is heaven. We also took some time to rebandage our blisters.
We then walked on to Ponferada. It was a long walk through the city. We have chosen to stay at a large parochial albergay because they do not take reservations. Everything else is filled up bacause this week they are having international bike racing competitions. (You can watch them on TV. ) We were lucky to get to the albergay before they opened. The custom is to put your backpack in line and then it is first come first serve for a bed. The albergay holds about 140 people. I told Angie it felt like checking into a homeless shelter. We are all tired and wet and look rough. We are all hoping for a room. One of the volunteers graciously gave out small cups of tea while we all waited in line. We get checked in one by one after checking our passports and then taken to a room. We are in a room with all women with 6 beds. We are very happy to have a room!
After checking in we went to tour the Knight's Templar Castle. If is very interesting with an additional exhibit of Biblio texts from the 7th through the 15th century. It is a good thing we were enjoying it because we were stuck there with a huge down pour of rain for about 2.5 hours.
We went for Tapas at a nearby restaurant and watched the bike races. While there we watched an American woman win. We wished we could have been at the end of the race to cheer her on! We did see lots of helicopters flying around covering the races and we could here an announcer in the distance. We will try to get closer to the action tomorrow.
We decided to make our own dinner and so we went to the supermarket. It was a real treat because it was larger then any we have been in so far and they had much more food the we normally see. Angie was in heaven. She actually likes grocery shopping. We had a great pasta dinner with many other pilgrims.
Lessons Learned: Tend to the dignity of every person, particularly those in need of a bed and food.
We left again this morning in the rain and descended a steep rocky trail. It was formed from a bedrock of slate which is very slippery when wet. We heard that yesterday they had to take someone off the mountain in an ambulance because of a fall in the rain. We descended slowly and carefully.
In a couple of hours we came to a small town nestled in the valley of mountains and stopped in a restaurant for fresh squeezed orange juice and split a chocolate croissant. It is heaven. We also took some time to rebandage our blisters.
We then walked on to Ponferada. It was a long walk through the city. We have chosen to stay at a large parochial albergay because they do not take reservations. Everything else is filled up bacause this week they are having international bike racing competitions. (You can watch them on TV. ) We were lucky to get to the albergay before they opened. The custom is to put your backpack in line and then it is first come first serve for a bed. The albergay holds about 140 people. I told Angie it felt like checking into a homeless shelter. We are all tired and wet and look rough. We are all hoping for a room. One of the volunteers graciously gave out small cups of tea while we all waited in line. We get checked in one by one after checking our passports and then taken to a room. We are in a room with all women with 6 beds. We are very happy to have a room!
After checking in we went to tour the Knight's Templar Castle. If is very interesting with an additional exhibit of Biblio texts from the 7th through the 15th century. It is a good thing we were enjoying it because we were stuck there with a huge down pour of rain for about 2.5 hours.
We went for Tapas at a nearby restaurant and watched the bike races. While there we watched an American woman win. We wished we could have been at the end of the race to cheer her on! We did see lots of helicopters flying around covering the races and we could here an announcer in the distance. We will try to get closer to the action tomorrow.
We decided to make our own dinner and so we went to the supermarket. It was a real treat because it was larger then any we have been in so far and they had much more food the we normally see. Angie was in heaven. She actually likes grocery shopping. We had a great pasta dinner with many other pilgrims.
Lessons Learned: Tend to the dignity of every person, particularly those in need of a bed and food.
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