Chestnut Cake and Delicious Dinner
Got an early start again today, and walked in the dark almost all the way to Villafranca del Bierzo. As I reached the crest of the hill into town, I got a beautiful sunrise of the castle (there is always a castle). I was FROZEN (it wasn’t even that cold, but I was wearing shorts).
I searched for an open cafe (it is Sunday again…) And finally found one to hide in and warm up. Low and behold, Fem was also there. We had coffee together. She started telling me about this chestnut cake that is supposed to be popular in this region, that she wanted to find.
We discussed the route, and decided we wanted to do the ‘alternate’ that went up the hills to Pradela. I said that I heard that the almond cake in the cafe up there was amazing. Between the expected good views and good cake, we had to do it!
The view certainly did not disappoint!
After 8km of mountain hiking, we saw the sign for the cafe! Turns out I was wrong, it wasn’t almond cake as their specialty, it was chestnut cake!! The universe has a way of working itself out. (The cake was delicious by the way).
The rest of the walking was pretty uneventful highway-side walking, so we were even more glad we did the alternate. We arrived at our Albergue and were met by the host Luis. We got cleaned up and did laundry. Then we sat down and sort of unintentionally ended up planning the rest of our days to Santiago. We’ve both been planning to go to Albergues where the food is reported to be very good. This means our plans are very aligned. I may need to rename this the Camino de Food.
On that note, the food tonight was outstanding!! Fresh cream of carrot-from-the-garden soup, salad from the garden, and properly made pasta carbonara. Delicious.
I’m now in a food coma, trying to get this written before I fall asleep.