Cacabelos to Villafranca del Bierzo

Walked today: 6.3 mi. Camino2023: 226 mi

We made a right turn off the main road and the pavement continued a few hundred yards, before we took another left into a dirt road that headed into the vineyards.

In our previous Caminos, we’ve taken the recommended route that is 75% pavement and somewhat risky with small or no shoulders along the way.

Today, just to be different, we took the alternate route through the vineyards which was slightly longer but definitely more interesting and less boring than the road. It took us through the village of Valtuille de Arriba, (pop. 82), which had some restored homes but the majority if the buildings were in various states of ruin. A couple of the houses had been about 50% renovated, while the other half of the house was still in ruins.

As we entered the town we faced the Iglesia de Santiago with its Puerta del Perdón, a doorway for pilgrims who were too sick to continue to Santiago. They could walk through the door in lieu of completing the pilgrimage and receive the same indulgences.

The Villafranca del Bierzo Castle was built in 1515 over the remains of a previous fortification. Its first owner was Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo (second marques of Villafranca) and since 1850 by Don Joaquin Caro y Alvarez.

More of a fortified-palance than a castle, it was ransacked in 1809 by the English and in 1815 and 1819 by the French during the Independence War.

It’s under private ownership, not open to the public and we’ve never seen the inside.

The streets and steps into Villafranca del Bierzo mid-town are very steep. Jim did a little dance after missing a step near the bottom of this run and amazingly remained on his feet the final steps into the street without incident… but he was clearly much more cautious the rest if the day.

We finally checked in to Viña Femita at 1:00.

Tonight we had a light dinner, cooked by the Juan’s mother. Viña Femita was built on the site of the family home, which burned when Juan was a child. In it’s place, Juan has built a very nice albergue/hotel… and is continuing to add to it, including a new section of 7 additional rooms which should be open for guests in the next month.

Juan’s dad grows Mencia grapes in his vineyards and produces some very nice red wine, as evidenced by the bottle Linda and I had with tonight’s dinner.

You’ll notice from the photo, the bottle has no label. It was selected from Juan’s collection especially for us.

We had a delicious vegetable soup and Jim had a portion of very tender breaded fried chicken breast. It was more than we should have eaten after our late lunch pizza, but we’ll get a chance to walk it off tomorrow on the way up into the mountains.

It was a nice ending for a delightful day in Villafranca del Bierzo for Camino2023.