Day #12 Cacabelos to Trabadelo

We got an early start today in the dark, but the way wasn't well marked so we moved very slowly looking for yellow arrows.  Finally some walkers came along who turned out to be 2 men from Scotland  and a young woman from France whom Marty had befriended while was blogging and emailing last night.  We followed them along the road -- unfortunately the Camino was along the road for several km, almost all the way to the small city of Villafranco del Bierzo where we stopped in the plaza

for coffee and tortilla española.  Afterwards we parted ways with Ian, Alan, and Nicole.  

When we set out again, I got a bit confused about where to get back on the Camino on the trail that went up and over the mountain so we wasted some time backtracking.  Many people don't take the mountain trail recommended by Brierley because it is described as "very hard" and only for "very fit walkers".  We didn't find it to be any harder than the earlier walks we did in Navarre.  It was a very long up hill and then a pretty steep and rocky downhill.  Much of it was an open trail with spectacular views and some through lovely Spanish Chestnut orchards.  The hardest part was that there were none of the usual Camino yellow arrows or shell symbols, so we got into doubting ourselves and being a bit anxious.  But from time to time we found arrows in the road made of stones or branches -- enough to keep us going.

And now we are in a small Albergue Parroquial.  It says that it's new, but it's in a very old building.  We are in a room of 3 bunk beds with male and female cousins from Poland.  2 upper bunks above Marty and I are empty and hopefully will stay that way.  I'm afraid I might be getting a cold -- sneezing all day. Luckily I brought my trusty Zicam!