Day 26, Moilnaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

The historic castle at Ponferrada.

June 30
Yesterday may have been the hardest, but today was the longest - and the hottest.

When I passed through a small town at noon, the pharmacy clock was saying 33 degrees and it got much hotter than that before I arrived at my destination four hours later.

But to backtrack a bit. I woke up very grumpy because of the stratospheric noise I'd endured from soon after 9pm to nearly 1am. It was Saturday night in Molinaseca and directly below my window was a live rock band playing at unbelievable volume. It was a fairly classy hotel and I was very disappointed that they wouldn't have thought to at least mention it. I couldn't find and air conditioning in the room. It was very hot when I went to bed and I'd opened the window, but that wasn't possible once the music started.

Added to that disappointment, they didn't start breakfast until 7.30am, when I had a very long day ahead and just wanted to get away early. I was downstairs on the dot of 7.30am and nothing was there. When I asked about breakfast they looked surprised and produced a breakfast menu.

I think they sensed my angst when I slightly erupted in fury, demanded coffee, juice, cereal, yoghurt - there was no way I was going to wait while they dawdled through cooking eggs and toast. I would have grabbed handfuls of croissants and cake, but I'm travelling very light these days and didn't have any way to carry stuff.

At about 4km I hit the outskirts of Ponferrada, a reasonably large (pop 69,000) town. I had to choose from two routes, one through the town and one skirting around it. These choices are never easy. On any given day, the guide book might list half a dozen optional courses and unless you walk with the book in your hand and have a good plan it's difficult to figure out. I usually just go with the main marked course and hop for the best.

On this occasion, I veered off to the left and bypassed the boring suburbs, coming into the old part of the town and reaching an old castle, which is part of a restoration project.

Navigating towns and cities can be fraught. I hadn't gone far into the old part of town when I came into a square with no obvious way marks.

I chose what looked like a pilgrim route, but it soon became apparent I was barking up the wrong tree. After asking two people for advice (neither spoke English), I retraced my steps and found that in the square where I'd been puzzled, a bar had put up sun umbrellas completing blocking the pilgrim signs.

The rest of the walk through and out of Ponferrada was very pleasant, with an alternate route along the river bank.

And so it went  - I stopped for coffee and tortilla and a cafe in a small village at about 11am.

At about 20km I stopped in an isolated spot at one of the pop-up bars, where I met my friend from the night before Nancy (who'd started an hour before me) and had a bottle of aerated water.

I was knocking back the agua. I must have drunk 3 litres during the day. The final 12km became a bit of a shuffle, where you just want to get there, but don't want to stop.

After nearly 8 hours and just over 32km (and a very pleasant descent in to town) I found my hotel. It was great to get here. They greeted me with a large bottle of cold lemon juice. This is a bit of an upmarket hotel and as I have a rest day (my final one) tomorrow, I decided to indulge myself. The hotel has a reputation as a gourmet restaurant, but the restaurant is closed on Sundays (today). That's fine, as I'm meeting other people in the town,but I booked in for dinner tomorrow and will choose from the menu at breakfast time (some of the items on the agenda take eight hours to cook).

I also indulged in laundry. I've been on the trail all of June and never used a laundry - just washing in the bath,shower or handbasin whatever I wore that day. Tonight I took all my laundry downstairs and will have it delivered tomorrow.

This hotel also prides itself on having only seven individual rooms.

Here's the description of mine: http://www.lapuertadelperdon.com/en/habitacion_ElNidito.php#galerias/habitacion_ElNidito/img/img_1.jpg

One important landmark is that I'm inside the last 200km - 600km down - so I'm more than three quarters of the way there. Tomorrow is my last rest day, then it's full steam to the end.

Here's today's photos (not many, as I was down to survival mode by the end of eight hours: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fwVUm7qmSDopDE656