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Camino Olvidado Guide
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🇪🇸 Routes in Spain
🇪🇸 Camino OLVIDADO (Bilbao - Villafranca del B.)
BP on the Olvidado July 2023 - A retrospective
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[QUOTE="Bad Pilgrim, post: 1165069, member: 50859"] [B]Day 10: Congosto - Villafranca del Bierzo (Ponferrada), 35 kms[/B] I was excited about reaching Villafranca del Bierzo this day, where I hadn't been since 2009. I was not excited about the stroll around the Embalse de Bárcena in the morning though. After more than two hours of walking next to the lake we were back almost were we started. We could see Congosto and the sanctuary in front of us again, really close but on the other side of the water. I told Juan Luis we had to visit the bar La Madrileña in Cubillos del Sil, so we went there to have breakfast. The owner was happy to see us and she was just as nice as other pilgrims have described her. I went straight to the corner with the pilgrim photos to check it out. As she noticed that I knew what the corner was about, we immediately started talking Camino things. A few of the other costumers also chimed in. She said she needed a larger wall because she had too many photos of pilgrims now... She asked if we had seen any bears this morning, as another pilgrim recently encountered a mama with her cubs near the lake. That sounded ominous. Heck, I even get threatened by cows on the Camino! (See previous installments.) But I remembered the reassuring words that young priest Antonio had said to me about bears when we were in Fasgar: "The bears won't attack. And if they do, I will personally take care of your burial." Señora Madrileña lamented the lack of bridge between Cubillos del Sil, we talked a bit about the upcoming elections, and Juan Luis explained the story behind his bandaged fingers to inquiring costumers. Finally she took the mandatory picture of us two holding a wooden sign with the words "Camino Olvidado". Hopefully we will end up on the wall of fame soon! A visit to La Madrileña is highly recommended. A lot of road walking this stage so I don't have much to say about the terrain. We rapidly approached the town of Cacabelos on the Camino Francés. I wondered where we would join it. Then, in front of us, a couple of pilgrims suddenly crossed the road. We knew that at that spot exactly, the Camino Olvidado ended. And within five minutes I had seen more pilgrims than in the past four weeks put together..! Still, walking through Cacabelos there weren't as many pilgrims as I had thought. It was afternoon and very hot so most of them had probably stopped for the day. Only a handful of us continued nine more kms towards Villafranca del Bierzo. I got separated from Juan Luis the last kms and walked totally alone the last hour into Villafranca. Not the crowd I had imagined on the Camino Francés..! As usual, I had no memories of this part of the Camino or of Villafranca del Bierzo from 2009. Camino Francés is always new territory for me. But why is everything so quirky there? Quirky cafés with quirky handmade signs, quirky bohemian handicraft, quirky hippie rest areas, quirky flower pots... I concluded that the Camino Francés is best savored in small doses. Nine kms were enough this time. Juan Luis and I ran into each other again in Villafranca. We celebrated our arrival with a meal at the plaza and communicated with Antonio through WhatsApp. Antonio would be one stage ahead of me on the Camino de Invierno from Ponferrada. Juan Luis would take the bus to Ferrol to walk the Camino Inglés and I would take another bus to Ponferrada to walk the Invierno. We thought we had said farewell to each other, but an hour later he stumbled into my bus before we left Villafranca. There is no direct bus to Ferrol from Villafranca so he had to go to Ponferrada first. At the bus station in Ponferrada, we finally parted ways. In Ponferrada I stayed at Hostal Rio Selmo (35 euros). A most unpleasant experience. For two reasons: [B]1) Compulsive English-speaking staff.[/B] The guy at the reception insisted on speaking English to me. All. The. Time. I politely answered in Spanish, through gritted teeth and with a strained smile on my face. Apparently my Spanish is not good enough to keep up a conversation in Ponferrada.[B] 2) Bed bugs.[/B] In the morning, there was blood on my sheets and I saw one of the culprits that I had squished during my sleep. It was the first thing I told the hospitaleros in Casa Rosa at the albergue in Puente de Domingo Flórez later that day, because I didn't want to spread it to them. They put my clothes in a black plastic bag and left it in the sun during the afternoon to suffocate any bedbug that dared to travel with me. Of course I reported this to the linguistically challenged guy and his lethargic colleagues at Rio Selmo as I left Ponferrada in the morning. But they didn't raise an eyebrow. But... Now we are getting into the Camino de Invierno. And that, my friends, is a whole other story. This has been the Olvidado report! Thanks for following! [I]THE END[/I] [/QUOTE]
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