2013-09-21

On the way to Ponferrada

This morning at 06:00 I put on the light, so I could find all my stuff get it organized. I start every morning by taking my medication. After I do that, I need to clean the little cup and store it in a bag, which should be at the top of my backpack, where I place all my remaining drugs. I try to roll up my sleeping bag so that it fits well in the bag designed for it. I then set this bag in a special place down in the backpack. This space is actually supposed to be for storing dirty laundry. For that I have a special plastic bag, with large letters on it: THIS LAUNDRY IS DIRTY. For my clean laundry ... as you can understand, a plastic bag with the text ...THIS LAUNDRY IS CLEAN. I left at 6:30 AM in the moonlight, without breakfast. After a mile, I met a man who came from Denmark and was 72 years old.

The man from Denmark

I told him that I had been advised by my USA friends not to take the steep descent to Molinseca. That was too big a burden for my knee. So I planned on walking the regular road to Molinseca .This distance was a bit further. He felt that it was best for him also to walk along the main road, and we decided to walk together to Molinseca. He also did not have breakfast that morning. The walking pace was not fast, so we had plenty of time to look toward the hills / mountains, when it was starting to get light around us. We also took the necessary pictures during our walk. We passed a village (Riego de Ambrós) but there was no bar open, so there was nothing else but to sit down and eat our supply of cookies on a couple of large stones we encountered along the way.

On the way to Molinseca…..

Eventually we arrived at 10.00 AM in Molinseca, where we ate a full breakfast at the very first bar. After breakfast, the Dane said to me that he liked to walk alone along the way, so we said goodbye.

The bridge at Molinseca

I then just traveled alone to Ponferrada. In Ponferrada there is only one inn for pilgrims. After asking a few times and when I was almost at the refugio, I saw Kai a few hundred meters in front of me. He heard my loud voice and came to me. We agreed that he would pick me up to eat something at 2.30 PM. I could enter the inn at 2.00 PM. This inn had a large capacity and has beautiful showers and toilets. I think that 200 pilgrims can sleep there. Once again I had a bottom bunk in a room for 4 people.

Near Ponferrada……

The castle at Ponferrada

The refugio at Ponferrada

I have a short wait for Kai and then go to dinner. Kai had to leave by bus from Ponferrada that evening to go to Barcelona. He would stay a few days there and then fly back to Finland. After dinner, we said goodbye to each other with the agreement that we would keep in touch. In the inn I used the computers to the Internet to make my family and friends aware of my experiences. In the evening I went to the store to buy bread, jam and yogurt.

Wine is very cheap in Ponferrada … price in €

Among the bunches of grapes in the garden of the refugio, I ate some of my purchases. Near me there was a large Polish family, with large pans and a lot of wine bottles on the table. A big burly man had cooked in the kitchen of the refugio and he obviously enjoyed his kitchen arts while drinking lots of beer and wine. At bedtime, I spoke to the Dane outside the refugio… He had received permission from the refugio volunteers to stay an extra day at the inn, so that he could take his time while touring Ponferrada . When I went to bed, I looked just outside the entrance and saw that loose mattresses were placed under the roof of the refugio so people could sleep there too....

Pilgrims , sleeping outside under the roof …