Vega de Valcarce

Sunday 19th June 2022 Day 29

Today is Father’s Day and also Toms birthday. So congratulations to him in both counts! And happy Father’s Day to Robin.

The weather changes today do we are prepared for showers and much cooler temperatures, hurrah!! We walked out of town and over to Villafranca del Bieroza. It was toads again but lovely walk and we were rewarded by this sight as we came into town. 8km is roughly our breakfast stop but always a gamble early on Sunday morning. But we found a lovely place for coffee and cake (to celebrate Toms birthday of course!)

We passed this small shop in the way in to town, it made us both think of Dorothy. And wonder what they are doing quilting in a small Spanish village!

Refreshed we set off again. Today is all walking by the side of the road. There is a diversion but it goes over the hills rather than through the valleys and adds an extra hour or two! It took us a nanosecond to decide against it!

The road is actually a very quiet country road with almost no traffic on a Saturday morning. Plus it runs next to a river so it was a lovely walk passing through some small towns. We stopped in this one for coffee, they had a sawmill and lots of giant jenga piles like this! Robin managed to upset the basil fawlty cafe owner by taking the wrong coffee by mistake. Some people are not natural hospitality staff!!

We walked through a village where the pavement was decorated with fresh flowers, We followed them up the path to the church. Someone had put a lot of love and effort into doing this, they were beautiful. Apparently it is the feast of Corpus Christi, I had to look it up. The church itself was small and lovely I prefer it to the gold encrusted churches!

A quick break at a truck stop then we found the 175km marker, not far to go now. Then the last few km and into Vega de Valcarce to find our hostel. I was told it had a balcony and views and it did not disappoint. There is a steam running by and our balcony looks out onto the green hills. Our balcony is above the purple umbrellas.

It is cool, raining off and on and perfect!! Today was much the same distance as yesterday and roads all the way but I feel much better. I am struggling to walk downstairs though my calf muscles are hurting! Robin had given them a massage and they should be ok. Now off to find a glass of wine and sit on the balcony!

Later we explored the town to find dinner. Very uninspiring, a choice between a local bar with some dodgy people in it and our Alburgue where the guy was watching TV very loudly and not that interested in serving people. Luckily the room was amazing and made up for it!