Saturday 1 OCTOBER 2011

Ponferrada Knights Templar Castle

After a good breakfast, we headed to reception to check out. There we met an American couple who regaled us with a tale of woe about a bag that had been lost for two weeks! US Air had insisted, as they were boarding, that there were too many bags in the overheads and they had to check their carry-on. Then they lost it! Anyway they told us they were on their way to Ponferrada. I remembered it as somewhere I really wanted to visit , so we decided to head that way when we left Benavente. First stop was Astorga, on of the premier places on the Camino de Santiago. Beautiful cathedral and a wonderful Bishop's Palace designed and built ( mostly) by Gaudi.Then on the road again towards Ponferrada the MOST impressive castle built by the Knights Templar. 13 century was the start and it went on from there. We were really lucky, because they had a blood drive going on and there was a dancing display going in the central courtyard. Gallego pipes, castanets, drums etc, wonderful! We made it there before siesta! A very nice town.
We continued on down through the mountains on a secondary road, it was gorgeous! The weather has been perfect, 85 degrees and dry. We stopped in O Barco and had a good lunch in one of these family hole-in-the wall places that we enjoy so much.
It was a long, but very satisfying day. We arrived in Verin at 5:30. The Parador is a little way out of town on top of a hill, close to Pablo the Cruel's castle. That's for tomorrow!

Jane failed to say that she and Cheryl SKYPED to Maddie, Jacob and Christine in VA where it had failed to surpass 50 F all day with fall lows at 39 degrees. they did not want to hear about out mid 80s temps here in Spain.
Well our Hertz rental is a VW Caddy which could easily pass as a local bread delivery van but it holds all of our luggage completely concealed. Not too bad 750 Kilometers from Madrid and it took 50.25 liters of diesel at 60 euros in cost.