Into the mountains, via the high road to Trabadelo (Th 3 Oct)

We had a choice of three routes today, one followed the road (boring, noisy, unsafe in places), a three peak trek (not well marked) and the "mountain" trail, better signposted, just a couple of peaks.  We chose the mountain trail and felt like we were in a dream all day, it was so nice.  We like gaining elevation, opening up beautiful views ("vistas" in Spanish).

First, a shot from last night, in the roar of the downpour, Jan was comfy and enjoying Joyce Rupp's book about the Camino that was on a take/leave bookshelf a couple albergues ago:

The heavy rain continued off and on during the night, but had ended by morning.  After a couple kms on the road, we took a quiet road into the hills and came upon this artist's studio.  Interesting sculptures!

Nice views once we gained some altitude:

And then down again into the town of Villafranca del Bierzo:

After a couple hours walking, we stopped for a coffee break just across the bridge exiting town.  Interesting to see a small canal next to the river:

From the coffee shop we had a nice view of the bridge.  The young woman crossing the bridge is from Korea.  We have stayed with her several nights, starting in Astorga:

From here, we started a steep climb.  Around one corner we saw a family of cats.  Common to see stray cats, but first time we've seen a family:

Extra shot for our son Scott and daughter-in-law Jorgiena who have two cats:

Leaving the cats behind we climb higher, as the sun rises creating these great shadows:

A look back towards town, with the castle in the lower left:

A little higher and one last look back:

Chestnut groves on the top.  Scary dark clouds building and high winds, so we picked up the pace to try to reach the albergue before the rains started:

Arriving in town, we had the most warm welcome ever.  She didn't speak a word of English, but that didn't matter:

And this woman was trying to get us to corral her puppy and send it home, but we weren't successful: