In a lovely stone village

I have had a wonderful three days´walking, the terrain is changing, and the really lucky part of it all is that though there have been some incredible downpours, both days they have arrived about 20 minutes after I got into the albergue. Today´s stop is a small town called El Acebo, a one street village with nothing but camino-related businesses -- an albergue, a couple of restaurants, a small shop or two. The town is quite beautiful, all stone buildings with slate roofs.

I´ve stayed in some new towns, trying to mix it up a little so it´s not all the same old same old. From León, I walked to Hospital de Orbigo, a long slog, but when we arrived there was a medieval "fair" going on. Tons of crowds, lots of food, some parades, sack races, tug of war -- who knew those school yard games came to us from so many centuries ago.

I´ve met a huge number of Americans, certainly more Americans in the last 5 days than I have met on all of my Caminos put together. I have been walking with a woman from Santa Rosa, who is good friends with a good friend of my good friend Dana -- how´s that for a small world? And this part of the Camino is one that brings back so many memories of my caminos with Dana, so it all seems to fit together.

The meseta has officially ended and we are starting to see some elevation gain. It makes things more interesting, and there are some amazing vistas. Today was a mix of clouds and sun, and we walked through a favorite village of mine, Rabanal (where there are two new albergues, making it a grand total of four in a town of about 50 people)and after one terribly cloudy stretch, the sun opened up just as we arrived at the Iron Cross, one of the high points of the Camino Francés.

Tomorrow, I will arrive in Ponferrada, a short 20 km away. There is a very impressive and well-renovated Templar castle, and from there the next day I will say goodbye to my friends and hike on myself. Then in a short 10-12 days I will arrive in Santiago. It´s all going so fast. It will hard to say goodbye to my friends, it is nice to have people around, but I hope one or two may come with me on my adventure.