My Journey to Santiago de Compostela Part XXV

It was a chilly morning when I left Foncebadón before 7:00 while still dark.  It would be a long day with a very important stop to lay my stone at the Cruz de Ferro.  This is a tradition among pilgrims to write a wish or a message on a stone and leave it beneath the cross.

From then on, I walked “solo” for almost 20 kilometers until I reached Molinaseca, where I again met Guru and Asun. We were joined by Morris, the guy from Utah.  We had a cup of coffee together then Guru, Asun and I walked together to Ponferrada, about 8 kilometers away.

Ponferrada is a major city in the province of Leon, with 66.000 inhabitants.  Ponferrada, whose name comes from the wooden and iron bridge that crossed the River Sil in the 11th century, is the gateway from Castilla y León to Galicia and the exit from Galicia to the plateau. In the Middle Ages, its customs houses provided the highest income in the kingdom.

It was a town repopulated in the Reconquista by Fernando II and handed over to the Order of the Temple in the year 1185. The Templars were expelled in 1312 and its castle would end up being the symbol of the city. It was owned by the powerful Núñez de Castro family and later by the Catholic Monarchs. It stands on a castro above the city, and its imposing image recalls, however, the palaces of stories.

So as soon as I was settled in the albergue and showered, I joined a new friend from Cali, Colombia, who was sharing the bunk bed with me, to go visit the Castle of the Templars.  At the castle, I felt taken back in time for there were so many displays of a glorious past of kings, princes, soldiers and ecclesiastics who lived there to prepare to go fight the Crusades.  I saw an incredible collection of hand-crafted books about Christianity on display at the museum of the Castle and took many photographs, some of which are shown below.

After the visit, I bumped once more into Asun and Guru and later saw Lindsay who introduced me to a Croacian friend she had met on the Camino.  The three of us had dinner together then I went back to my albergue to get ready for another day of the journey, a very important one because I would start to exit the “meseta”.