Camino Day 22: Villafranca de Bierzo to Las Herrerias

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We were up and out the door by 6am, heading for Las Herrerias. About an hour later we entered Pereje (or as someone with a spray can decided, Perexe). I missed Pradela completely and about an hour later we entered Trabadelo. Along the way we noticed a major highway on the hillside above us. About when we entered La Portela del Valcarce, we spotted a very nice, very modern Hotel, Hotel Valcarce, that was at an offramp from the highway. It looked like it had a cafeteria, so we checked it out, along with some other pilgrims. Sure enough, they served coffee and breakfast stuff, we went it. I had a napolitana and Manoli had some churros to go with her coffee.

After breakfast, at about 10am, we entered La Portela del Valcarce. At first I thought we'd missed something, since before Valcarce we were supposed to go through Ambasmestas, but sure enough, after La Portela del Valcarce, we went through Ambasmestas. Apparently, La Portela del Valcarce wasn't a "suburb" of Vega del Valcarce. Ambasmestas was rather small, and we entered Vega del Valcarce a few minutes later. Rareesh and I had stayed in the municipal albergue here in 2017. By this point, the major highway above us had become a thing in the sky, with the lanes supported by massive columns of concrete waaaay above us. Just before 11am, we entered Ruitelan and stopped for another break.

Soon after our break, we reached Las Herrerias. This supposedly one of the last towns before the big climb to O Cebreiro, and the only place that I know of where you can rent horses on the Camino. For 40 Euros, you can ride a horse up to O Cebriero, with a handler. Apparently, this what the rich folks did way back when, to reach O Cebreiro, rather than making the big climb. They still have a guy that leads his horses, with pilgrims, up. I considered the idea, but the 40 Euro price tag was not worth it, and you have to reserve them way ahead of time. We'd reserved two beds in Casa Lixa, an albergue/hotel that had rave reviews. It was very nice, with a restaurant and very clean rooms with lockers, lights, and outlets. Unfortunately, the cook was off on Monday, so we couldn't eat lunch there, and they didn't have a microwave. We ended up walking up the road a bit and found a decent restaurant. I forgot to take photos of it though. I had pork chops and Manoli had trout. My pork chops were a bit tough, but tasty.

Afterwards. we went back to the albergue and lounged around til dinner. Manoli wasn't hungry, so I went next door and ordered some Cuban rice dish that was quite good. Tomorrow we make the climb from hell to O Cebreiro, and then on to our albergue in Fonfria.

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