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I'm sure everyone knows this but - There is a beautiful alternative route from Villafrance del Bierzo which cuts out about half the road walking on the way to Vega de Valcarce via beautiful Pradela - although I guess it does add a few extra km. As a Camino amatuer I've no idea what the road bit was like, but the route we ended up on was beautiful - and we had cake made from Chestnuts in Pradela!Leaving Villafranca del Bierzo in thick chilly fog, I was surprised by how much of the camino is on tarmac.
Normally I would have taken that, but I was a bit nervous about getting up to the pass at Pedrafita before losing the daylight.There is a beautiful alternative route from Villafrance del Bierzo which cuts out about half the road walking on the way to Vega de Valcarce
The Bóveda detour was certainly a highlight of my camino this summer past. I would join Alan in recommending it to anyone walking nearby, either returning back to the Primitivo or continuing on via the Verde.At shortly after first light I was crossing the Miño on the Ponte Romana, having passed my first xunta camino hito - 98,700 metres to go, on the Primitivo. The 4th place one of my caminos has crossed the Miño - on the Geira e dos Arrieiros, on the Sanabrés, on the Invierno, and here. I continued on the Primitivo for about 10km, almost entirely on tarmac, entirely next to a road, and for about 5km actually on the road, with no verge and most cars ignoring the 70 and 50kmph speed limits.
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The Primitivo mostly follows the Vía Romana XIX, with occasional deviations. On one of these I followed the Roman road to Santa Eulalia de Bóveda.
What a place, what a place. One of the highlights of a camino that has included a glut of Roman, pre-Romanesque and Romanesque. A small underground chamber, partly a 4th century barrel-vaulted Roman structure - possibly even earlier - with faint relief carvings visible on some of the stones.
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In the 6th or 7th century the Visigoths added what is believed to be the earliest known horseshoe arch in Europe.
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More importantly, they covered the ceilings with exquisite paintings. Highly realistic, delicately coloured paintings, mostly of birds - pheasants, ducks, peacocks, chickens - and some plants.
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At first glance I assumed they too were Roman - their style is not dissimilar to some of the works in Herculaneum - but the knowledgeable and chatty guide assured me they had been carbon-dated to the 7th century. Above, the structure had been covered over by an entirely nondescript 18th century church, which probably saved it from destruction. Nobody knows what it was designed to be - spa, temple, church, burial ground.
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Enigmatic - and astonishingly beautiful - for ever. Such a pleasure, and especially to be shown round by the charming custodian, who was thrilled when I showed her some pics of the later horseshoes at San Miguel de Escalada. And her office had the only two miliarios I've seen on this section of the XIX.
And then on to Friol. I'm sure I've read on gronze or somewhere that the Camiño Verde link between the Primitivo and the Norte is signed from Santa Eulalia as well as from Lugo, but I couldn't find any green arrows. Mapy.cz sorted me out a perfectly decent route, so it wasn't a problem. Although loose agressive dogs were. At one point 4 were circling me threateningly, while their owner ineffectively tried to call them off. I told her she shouldn't let them out if she couldn't control them, and she shouted something at me in Galician. From her tone, I don't think it was complimentary.
At one high point there was a distinctive bump in the hillscape due south, which I think might have been the Monte do Faro, just after Chantada on the Invierno. I had been regretting not getting to see the two outstanding (and atypical) el Grecos in Monforte de Lemos. But after Santa Eulalia, I no longer am.
At Friol, I'm staying in the Pensión Casa Benigno, which is fine, and which did a decent lunch. Künig carried on on the Primitivo, probably using the Vía Romana after Bóveda.
The road route out of Villafranca del Bierzo is very dull, but as an old man I avoid climbs when I can... And BTW; you are not a Camino amateur any longer, You walked the walk.As a Camino amatuer I've no idea what the road bit was like, but tlhe route we ended up on was beautiful - and we had cake made from Chestnuts in Pradela!
Greetings!In the 1490s, a German monk called Hermann Künig walked from Vach to Santiago and back again, recording his trip in 651 verses. After the Codex Calixtinus, it is almost certainly the first guidebook to the Camino, and the first to give details on where to stay, what to eat and which innkeeper might shortchange you. It was hugely successful, going through four editions in a very short time. If Künig is ever canonized, he should quickly become the patron saint of tripadvisor.
Mostly he followed the Camino Francés. However, wanting to avoid the climb up to O Cebreiro, he advises turning right and following the río Valcarse upstream to Pedrafita do Cebreiro, and continuing vía Lugo and then the Camino Primitivo.
Today I followed his footsteps, as well as those of George Borrow in the 1830s. Leaving Villafranca del Bierzo in thick chilly fog, I was surprised by how much of the camino is on tarmac. Occasionally the sunlit uplands were just visible, or a rare shaft of brilliant sunlight would strike the valley floor, with the busy grey green waters of the Valcarce providing a continuous running commentary.
A Jacotrans lorry passed by, and a few other pilgrims appeared along the roadside, although all had their rucksacks. I fell in with a charming Breton lady of about my age, and we walked together to Vega del Valcarce, where she is staying tonight, and where we each had a very nasty bowl of soup. Nasty, but very convivial, and the first person I've broken bread with in over 50 days.
Künig's path leaves the Francés near Las Herrerias, following the river upstream through beautiful thick woods. Occasionally you're forced briefly on to the old N VI highway, but it's blocked at the top for motorway construction, so only locals can use it. Borrow gets a little breathless about this section, writing: "It is impossible to describe this pass or the circumjacent region, which contains some of the most extraordinary scenery in all Spain ... The traveller who ascends it follows for nearly a league the course of the torrent, whose banks are in some places precipitous, and in others slope down to the waters, and are covered with lofty trees, oaks, poplars, and chestnuts. ... Everything here is wild, strange and beautiful."
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Shortly before the top of the pass, where motorway works are in full swing, you pass into Lugo province in Galicia. My 5th and last autonomous region of this camino, and my 10th and penultimate province. At the entrance to Pedrafita do Cebreiro is a lifesized bronze sculpture of Künig, in pilgrim fig.
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And soon afterwards I was installed in a very comfortable casa rural, Miguiñas do Cebreiro, and provided with a Vía Künig tote bag, a Vía Künig credencial and an excellent leaflet on the Vía Künig.
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