Another great day, but no walking

I am now in Villafranca del Bierzo, having only walked to and from the bus!  Mind you that involved some distance, but not the 26kms it should have been.  Once I loaded up this morning it became obvious to me that to walk would be foolish.

My knee is quite painful, and I was starting to walk with a limp, a big no-no if I want to avoid further injury.  I learnt this from experience when walking the Via Francigena, where I suffered all sorts of injuries.  After my return, the physio informed me that the worst thing I did was limp and pander to my plantar fasciaitis.  If I had walked normally and stretched my calves as often as practical it probably would not have developed to the extent that it did.  Lesson learned, and this Camino the moment I have felt a twinge I have started stretching and doing the exercises I was given.  This has been successful as, apart from the knee which was an accidental pull/twist descending a hill, I have been injury free.  I checked out Dr Google the other night and now have a whole lot of knee exercises to do too, as they are really helping, along with rest!  Hence my day on the bus today.

I have to keep lecturing myself that it doesn't matter if I don't walk the whole way, and though my head knows this I still get cranky with myself that I resort to catching the bus.  Especially today, a gloriously sunny, even mild, day with no breeze to speak of.  The most disappointing thing with not walking today is that I didn't walk past the Ermita San Blas at Columbrianos.  I have yet to see this, as each time I have been here for various reasons I have missed that stretch.  At least now I know where to warn people so they don't miss the path!!

Villafranca del Bierzo is a delightful town.  Relatively small and amazingly neat.  All the buildings appear to be cared for, even those in danger of something drastic happening to them.  Those buildings in poor shape have props holding them up, covers over important areas and generally look as if someone will be back soon to fix things!

Watching the world go by in the Plaza Mayor,

Villafranca del Bierzo

Just some of the buildings in the town.

I thought I was going to be able to report that it was graffiti free, unlike Ponferrada, but after a really long walk around the town, pack free, I found one wall with a few bits of graffiti.  This town looks lively and energetic, even though I suspect there is quite an aging population.  I sat in the plaza Mayor today - getting a good dose of vitain D - and people watched.  There were old men and women shuffling along with their waking sticks, or doing what I was and sitting outside at a cafe watching the world go by, but always taking time to acknowledge each other and often stop and chat.  The joy of being on the road, with nothing but your shadow for company, and the occasional bird song, or rippling stream cascading down the mountain side is what the Camino is about, but so too is just sitting, like I did today, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the villages.

There a many churches in Villafranca del Bierzo,

though sadly none were open

Last time I was here I remember sitting and watching a group of men play the Spanish equivalent of Bocce in the garden in the centre of town.  This is an amazingly well manicured garden, hedges trimmed, roses pruned, and hydrangeas dead headed.  Not many villages / towns of this size on the caino have such a delightful garden. 

The manicured garden in Villafranca del Bierzo.

This brick tower had a slightly lopsided stor mmk's nest atop it.

This is the bridge that pilgrims leave 

Villafranca del Bierzo.  Just on the other side they have to choose whether to walk up the road, or up and over the mountains, before getting to the real climb!

Even the mossy wall looks tidy!

On the bus journey I could see many workers out in the vineyards pruning.  There were pruning piles throughout the vineyards, but they still have a long way to go.  I guess they were making the most of such a good day.  Last time I was in this region the streets had a continual stream of tractor's towing trailers laden with grapes, a very different scene now.

The bus station at Ponferrada was interesting.  It had a plant nursery in it, complete with a huge number of bulbs for sale, and many deciduous trees over 6' high.  This shop was next to the cafe and the book shop and I must say it seemed quite incongruous.  Leaving Ponferrada the town was pretty quiet.  A market was setting up along the river bank, but I didn't hang around to look.  Walking around the town last night the thing that stood out above all else was the incredible amount of graffiti.  Taking a photo without having graffiti in it was pretty near impossible, which was diaspointing.

Leaving Ponferrada.  The castle is on the left.

This statue was one thing not graffitied in Ponferrada!

I am sitting in a cafe while a soccer match is on.  Everyone's attention is on the television, the noise is increasing rapidly with lots of advise being told to the set!  When half time was on there was silence as all the men went outside en masse  for a smoke!

I am not sure what I will do tomorrow.  Whatever I decide when I wake will be what I think is best for my knee, as I do want to walk all the way from Sarria!  I am staying tonight in a spiffy hotel - I need a good night sleep and albergues don't always allow that.  A Spanish man rose at 3.45 am the other day, and though pretty quiet I  heard him (and others) packing etc.  Mind you, I am still bemused as to why he has to get up that early as it doesn't start to get light until about 8.30, and even then it is a very muted light for about an hour, so this man would have had at least 4 hours to walk in the dark!  The moon is not full for quite a few days, and so he saw who knows!