Day 24: Ponferrada to Villa Franca del Bierzo
- sarezend
- May 11, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: May 12, 2025
I wake up early but wait to leave until 7:00am hoping the cafe will be open. It’s Sunday so I’m not sure what will be open this early. Today’s plan is to walk 23 KMs to Villa Franca del Bierzo, the last major city before entering the region of Galicia. As I go downstairs I can see the cafe is not open so I decide to depart versus waiting to see if it opens maybe in 30 minutes. As soon as I step out into the open I notice my legs are already chirping sore from the previous day, all the way from my thighs to my calf’s.
I need a coffee and something to eat so as I leave Ponferrada I’m on the lookout but there is nothing open. Finally at 8:30am in a small town outside of Ponferrada I find an open cafe and get a cafe con leche and a chocolate filled croissant. I meet two other pilgrims from Spain and South Korea, we have a short conversation and laugh as we are all hurting from yesterday’s hike over the mountain.
Rain is in the forecast and it begins an hour before predicted. It comes hard and fast. Todays trails follow the old Roman road through the various small towns. I can see hills in the distance and there is no doubt more rain is coming as well as more climbs. The day is what I feel it is, rainy, wet with some muddy trail and small hill climbs. The descents turn out to be the most painful as my legs still feel sore from yesterday’s workout. I’m very happy this is to be a shortened day, 23kms. I think what Jeff said weeks ago, how many hikes do you go on that are 10-15 miles. Never, except this is my daily life. I have many thoughts about a couple of old high school friends with whom I used to hike a lot with in our younger days believing they would enjoy the Camino. I cannot recall being this sore, except after day one.
Before entering Villa Franca del Bierzo, I walk through a variety of small hamlets, again with half the buildings for sale and crumbling. It’s tough living out here, unless you own a Bodega, a winery. I also walk through fields upon fields of vineyards today. Not sure what the regional wine is here but they must produce a lot of it. The vineyards are beautiful but also pocked by large electrical lines that buzz over me as I walk beneath them. The day feels long but I arrive in Villa Franca del Bierzo at 12:30pm, 5.5 hours, it’s raining and cold as I enter plaza mayor looking for something to eat. I walk into a cafe and several restaurants, no food until after 1:00pm. I have a beer and a tapa, and wait.
After checking into my hostel, i get a recommendation for lunch at a restaurant called Mesón Don Nacho. Olga, at the hostel tells me 2:30pm is the time people eat, and so I go at 2:30pm to her recommended Don Nacho. I enter into a full restaurant, it smells good, I ask for a table, but I’m told the restaurant was full and no opening. I leave and find another place, I’m told that I have until 3:00pm to eat because the only table available is reserved at 3:00pm. I look at my watch, it’s 2:39pm. I’m served and eat a salad and baked chicken, and I’m done at 3:03pm. Great service but the food, well, I was hungry so just about anything would work.
After lunch I go on a supply hunt for water, and take care of some laundry as I prepare for the next day, a 26km hike with the forecast for more rain all morning. Tomorrow’s stop is a small hamlet called Laguna just shy of the region of Galicia. It’s flat but the last 7kms or so is a steep climb. My legs are still sore and rest is needed. Please enjoy the pictures of the day:
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