Day 32, Molinaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

Last night we were 7 for dinner, Dawn and Jim, Andy, Clive, George, myself and David from Ireland. Molinaseca was a beautiful small village, really cute and pretty. The place where Andy and Clive were staying looked great for dinner so we booked there.

The menu of the day was more expensive than most but it was really nice with different choices. I had a lovely goats cheese salad to start followed by garlic prawns as my main, both were really tasty, it felt like a relatively healthy dinner for once, although I followed by with cheesecake. The Spanish cheesecake seems to be very good, sort of like baked cheesecake.

This morning I set off around 8am and headed out of Molinaseca. In my way out I met a really nice girl from LA. We walked the first 5km together chatting about experiences so far. She is heading home on the 28th October, day before me, but is planning her stay day by day and has not yet decided whether to walk or bus to Finesterre, she is also contemplating visiting Porto. I have to say that this gives her a lot of flexibility. She was only walking 15km today though so after about 5km I was conscious that I had been walking quite slowly with her chatting but that I had 31km to walk today, so I headed on. Hopefully our paths will cross again.

The walk today went through the town of Ponferrada, many people yesterday walked onto here last night since it is a large town. It did however make the first 15km of the walk today a little boring in my view since we were on roads and through the town, however I think that is because I was so spoilt yesterday. The town did look interesting and had a large castle which is supposed to be good to visit.

After leaving Ponferrada I passed through a few small towns and stopped for a coffee after about 15km. I met a group of ladies who I had met the afternoon before, they had stayed last night in Ponferrada. After my coffee and briefly chatting I headed on. The scenery then changed and I headed off out of town into countryside. 

I stopped for a second breakfast at about 11am having walked about 20km. The spot was stunning and it was great to sit in the sun and have a little picnic with beautiful views.

The last 10km of the day were uphill, they felt quite hard for really the first time. Perhaps that is because yesterday was hills too, and also as I think many people had stopped after 20km or 25km today so there were very few people still walking. Still it was pretty and I enjoyed it even if my legs did feel a little lead like.

Arrived at my spot for the evening. Tonight will be the last time I see Dawn and Jim as they are staying here 2 nights and then heading home. I think it might be the last time I see Andy and Clive too as I have a shorter day tomorrow and then a rest day. George will catch up with me in my rest day though which will be good. 

The place this evening looks great, there are 7 rooms and it is very quaint. They are going to do my laundry for me which is wonderful so I have just passed them a bag of dirty laundry and now I am going out to explore!!

I now have less than 200km to go to Santiago!!

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