Leaving the Province of Leon, Entering Galicia- Stages 25 and 26- Villafranca de Bierzo to Triacastela

May 13, 2025 - Villafranca de Bierzo to Las Herrerias. Distance: 12.93, weather: 60s and mostly cloudy - no rain, but it threatened all day.

The day was a gentle uphill along a lush valley. Unfortunately, most of the day was on the freeway shoulder. Finally, about mile 9, we left the freeway and truck stops for a quieter road and villages. Between the freeway walking and grey skies I was pretty grumpy until getting to the quieter section where you crossed, and re-crossed, the beautiful Valcarce River and could appreciate the wide meadows with the occasional cow. I feel like I saw the same 1000 year old church in 3 different towns and took a photo of each - check out the video….The one interesting noteable thing was the ruins of the Sarracin Castle where King Carlos I of Spain spent the night on March 20, 1520.

May 14, 2025 - Las Herrerias to O Cabreiro. Distance 5.26, weather- 60s, partly sunny, and windy. I wish every day was like today. What a wonderful walk! A bit steep at times, but not on the roads and not too many people. There was a 2000 elevation gain over 5 miles, so it was a workout, but the rain held off and there were some wonderful views.

You can take a horse from Herrerias, if you want to avoid the workout and 4 people decided to do it. I saw the horses at the top waiting to come back again. The horses stayed on the road, as walkers split over to a lovely path through the woods and up into the hills as we started up the last mountain range of the Camino.

Because the distance was so short, and I couldn’t check in until 1pm, I stopped in both towns along the way. This made the day extremely relaxing. Along the way I finally exited the Province of Leon and entered Galicia. The architecture is different - rounded, thatched buildings instead of the rock/stone with slated roof. At the top of the Cabreiro Pass (1293 M) is O Cabreiro.

O Cabreiro greeted me with a piper as I pushed up the last rise into the village. I saw a photo from 1901 and the village looks pretty much the same - it’s almost a museum in itself. There is a lovely stone church in the village built in the 14th century called The Church of Santa Maria Real. It’s quite beautiful because of all the candles in red glasses used to light the church.

I did cave in and bought a local goat’s milk cheese which was lovely. That said, it smelled a bit bad after the second day….

Dinner wasn’t included, so went to a local 3 star hotel and had Galician Soup and a mixed salad. It satisfied my curiosity, but I didn’t care for the soup which included the local version of kale.

May 15 (and 16), 2025- O Cabreiro to Triacastela. Distance: 13.22 weather: foggy, cold. Last night I stayed at Casa Carolo. There was not my favorite hotel. First of all, it was odd that there was no check-in procedure. This caused other issues, see below. Breakfast this morning was at 8 and it was like school - they locked all their guests out in the street (cold and fog) until the church bell struck 8 and only then let us in to enjoy and incredibly underwhelming breakfast of 3 pieces of toast, a very small piece of cheese, one slice of local ham and one slice of sausage. I couldn’t wait to get out of their and returned the key. The proprietress said nothing.

Today‘s walk was along a lovely path through the woods and up to the Alto San Roque where there is a bronze pilgrim statue. The view is supposed to be amazing when it’s not foggy.

The church at Padornelo is the medieval church of Santa Maria Magdelena and I thought that was the smallest church along the way, but it wasn’t. That church was yet to come.

It was a steep climb up to the highest point in this mountain range, and the third highest point along the Camino called Alto do Poio where I stopped for tea.

Finally the path started to go downhill for the last 7, or so miles. This included the village of O Biduedo which is where the smallest church along the Camino can be found.

I was finally able to get to the bottom of the hill and enter Triacastela. Triacastela was founded in the 9th C by Count Gaton to populate the valley. It was destroyed by the Normans and was chronicled by King of Leon as a source of fundraising for the crusades. The local Church of Santiago was built in the 12C, but was closed because the priest was ill.

There was a bit of an issue when I got to my lodging for the night. It seems I was supposed to stay 2 nights in O Cabreiro. Normally I catch these things at check-in and the owner didn’t say anything when I gave her my key. Also, my luggage had been transferred with me to Triacastela. I was really hoping I wasn’t going to have to walk back up the hill. Thankfully CaminoWays was able to make it right and I was able to stay 2 nights in Triacastela. This town is very hospitable and Pablo, one of the owners of this lodge called Xacobeo Complex, was very welcoming and accommodating. They found me a private room for the first night and switched me to a larger room for my second night.

I was able to get some laundry done and had a wonderful dinner (same both nights) of noodle soup, mixed salad, yogurt and fruit for dessert.

May 16, 2025- a rest day with beautiful weather in Triacostela. Breakfast was a big buffet and no waiting in the cold outside. There was nothing to see in this village and so this was my first actual rest day for several weeks!