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LIVE from the Camino @Kalimera on the Francés

Altus 24 Liters daypack (DENON 24 H30)
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
You are giving me just the wibes I need Have to hold on at work for one more week. Starting from Leon on Sunday the 15th. Thank you!

Buen Camino!
 
2024 edition: The Brierley Camino Frances Guide
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Altus Poncho (ATMOSPHERIC H30)
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Looks warm and sunny but, five months ago?
Anyway, did you finish in Santiago?
 
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Ah right, katalava, I mistook the date next to your name as the date of your post. You’ll love it. Best time of the year to be walking the CF. Full of envy. Enjoy.
 
Camino Inglés Walking Holiday - UK
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Either me or the weather guy was wrong about ASTORGA …. probably me
 

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Nice to see David has his oasis open already. It’s a great spot to stop in before beginning what feels like an endless walk into Astorga.
 
Lightfoot Guide to via Francigena
Guides that will let you complete the journey your way.
Yes! Today has been perfect on this stretch.
 
Spent a couple of hours walking in the castle. Wednesdays are free!!
 

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Discover the Northern Camino!
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Kalimera said:
Spent a couple of hours walking in the castle. Wednesdays are free!!
Click to expand...
Hi Kalimera, thanks for posting these pictures. A few years ago I spent a glorious afternoon in the castle and your pictures have brought back wonderful memories of Ponferrada!
 
The guard/ticket shack held our backpacks for
us when we visited in 2018 - truly a kindness for a passing pilgrim.
 
Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I have often wondered how much of it is for real or is it just a tourist attraction.
 
Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I thought the castle was "mostly" real, and I have a great memory of poking around in all the areas. Any improvements that were made enhanced the experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it all...twice on two separate Caminos.
 
Ponferrada is my favourite castle. It has a superb exhibition of old books in the library and a very steep walled/roofed passage down to the river for water supply to the castle.
 

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The Ponferrada castle complex is well worth a visit if one is interested in this kind of thing. Quite impressive because it is so vast. I still vividly remember standing on one of the towers and looking through the narrow long openings in the wall, across town and countryside, and thinking of how cities were attacked and defended then.

Some parts are real and authentic, some parts are restored, some parts were added with the intention to make them look as dating from old times. What the castle of Ponferrada is not, despite its current name in brochures and on websites: a real Templar castle. There is nothing to be seen that was seen by a Templar, apart from some foundations stones in a few sections of this vast complex.
 
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biarritzdon said:
I have often wondered how much of it is for real or is it just a tourist attraction.
Click to expand...
Like Carcasonne, which for me was a real disappointment apart from the church. When I visited the church, there was a small Russian choir performing.
 
The manuscript library and weapons collection are both worth a visit, though the castle alone is a sight to see for those of us from countries without them (unless you count the ones at Disneyland and Disneyworld). It is not, however, Templar in origin or use.
 
More 2024 Camino Guides available
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I loved “les Harry Ass”. After climbing through the next few towns, I dropped my water bottle, and went back down forever to find it still rolling... A very beautiful part of the Camino. When I hear people asking about what parts to skip, I come up empty. Who would choose to skip any of it?
 
Can anyone tell me where that is or its name. I'm due to walk in to Astorga in 3 or 4 days time.
 
Lightfoot Guide to via Francigena
Guides that will let you complete the journey your way.
oliasah-peace said:
Can anyone tell me where that is or its name. I'm due to walk in to Astorga in 3 or 4 days time.
Click to expand...
At the Casa de los Dioses, a remote haven of camino caritas on the inland CF path west of Santibanez de Valdeiglesias/east of the Cruz de Santo Toribio amidst a vast plain with sweeping vistas David Vidal created/maintained his simple oasis.

La Casa de los Dioses · La Majada de Ventura, n 1, 24710 San Justo de la Vega, León, Spain

âââââ · Pilgrimage place
maps.app.goo.gl

La Casa de los Dioses

Lugar De Peregrinación en San Justo de la Vega
lacasadelosdioses.negocio.site
 
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Thank you
 
mspath said:
At the Casa de los Dioses, a remote haven of camino caritas on the inland CF path west of Santibanez de Valdeiglesias/east of the Cruz de Santo Toribio amidst a vast plain with sweeping vistas David Vidal created/maintained his simple oasis.
Click to expand...
It’s such a special place.

This is what I wrote about it the day I visited in 2017:

The spirit of the camino manifests itself in different ways to different pilgrims. For me, it has never shone brighter than at David's refreshment stand in the middle of nowhere on the trail today. David, pictured here giving a glass of watermelon juice to a six-year-old Nigerian-Norwegian pilgrim, provides fruit and all sorts of other food, as well as shelter, for free to all the pilgrims who pass. He lives here year-round, sleeping outside without electricity or a watch or a care in the world. And he has the best apricots on the Camino Francés.

 
More 2024 Camino Guides available
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I haven’t posted in a few days…. that’s because I have been walking
 

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