Friday, April 4, 2014

Day 23: to O Cebreiro

Another slightly epic day. As my guidebook is (again) drenched and drying on the radiator I don't actually know how far we came, but my guess is about 35km. 

Very definitely a day of three parts - a steamy start in the vineyards of El Bierzo, followed by about 20k of gentle uphill on the old national road. (That makes it sound bad - there is now a motorway in the sky, so the national road is both empty and peaceful and goes through loads of small, pretty hamlets with cowbell-wearing cows peacefully grazing).

The last two hours was a strenuous uphill slog, and coincided with several heavy periods of rain. I love that the local government of Castilla y Leon will build endless deviations so you don't have to look twice before crossing an empty road, but in other sections is happy for you to slip and slide for miles over bare rocks with rivers running down on crazy inclines...

Half an hour from our destination we gave up the battle against the rain and popped into a bar/albergue for a restorative slice of chocolate cake. The bar was full of mid-European blowhards talking shite (apologies) - this plus the extreme weather pushed us into taking a room in a nice hotel in O Cebreiro instead of battling for smelly-clothes-drying space at the hostel. 

Occasional glimpses when the clouds lifted suggested that the countryside here is absolutely beautiful. We are just (1k) into Galicia -  a Celtic region with bagpipes and a regional dialect that confuses me entirely. 

Must mention that last night's dinner was enlivened (!) by an 80-yr old Irish lady. She is using a bag-carrying service but walks at a pretty phenomenal pace. Impressive.





Headlines here: all about the rain!


And one for Dad - this is definitely where you need to come for a golden oldie. They are often to be seen lined up outside bars etc...


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