Twenty kilometres out of a nightmarish hotel in Villafranca de Bierzo through the beautiful and rolling countryside of the hilly extremity of Leon, I arrived in this very small village, and took the turn to the left to follow the Camino. There are two places to stay here, the first of which I passed as I had contacted this casa rural by telephone to book-- this was the national holiday weekend in Spain and much was already reserved.

I entered into the bar and the receptionist was able to understand my Spanish sufficiently to book me a compact but extremely comfortable room-- the entrance was around the back (a problem later in the evening when it was dark, as I had to carefully climb up the steps to turn on the light). The bed was the most comfortable I experience in seven weeks of walking in Spain-- the mattress firm and the linens excellent, which made the 52 euro price bearable. The bathroom was compact but provided me with what I needed, including lots of hot water... more