It is day 3 in our attempt to storm the Ponferrada Templar Castle and hopefully we will be successful in 30 min when it finally opens!Its been closed since we arrived, and it is what the city is famous for... Note, Do not expect to do any sight seeing on Mondays in Ponferrada!
So we basically were forced to relax, sleep, Adib shaved.We tried again this morning, but contrary to the information that was given to us, it opens at 11.00am not 10.00am.Which means we will have a late arrival once again tonight. On the bright side, the weather has cleared up and it is sunny now after rain and thick low clouds yesterday.
To get here we walked 29km from Foncebadon, after another sleepless night thanks to intensive snoring and people leaving at 5.42am in the morning... We started off in the clouds and thick fog, which gave the mountains a very mystical touch. Soon after we had a quick stop at a lonely church albuerge, that supplies pilgrims with free coffee and cookies. It was also just in time to wait out a major downpour. We went on to the Cruz de Ferro were it is custom to bring stones from your home and add them to the stone pile the cross is on. We picked some stones up 100m before,I am sure that also was calming the mountain gods and ensure save passage, which is why the Celtics started this tradition.
Indeed the clouds lifted a bit and the view got better. It was a beautiful hike through the mountain with lots of blossoming shrubs and bushes on the side.After a steep descent we reached a small little village were we stopped for lunch. The clouds kept rolling in and out and we were followed for a long time by a concert of thunder. In the next little town an old Senor was selling cherries, of course we got 1 kg and there will be lots of new cherry trees thanks to us on the way now!
We reached Ponferrada around 6.00pm. Thanks to a wrong printing in our guide it took a bit to find the hotel. I swear this time it was not my fault!!!!
We decided to visit the Templar Castle on the next day, since it was closed anyway on Sunday evening. Except that the castle was closed on Mondays, and everything around it as well. At least the old part of town appeared to be very sleepy on a Mondays...
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mondays are sleepy days in many villages in europe (at least in france and italy)... and even some of the big cities like paris.
ReplyDeletehowever, the fun part is that some villages take their sleepy days on tuesday... and then some small businesses decide their sleepy day should be on wednesdays or thursdays (not as often, but i’ve seen it)... so really, it’s a free-for-all and you’re lucky if you want to see something that it’s open when you happen to be there... ;)