Molinaseca to Ponferrada

Glad I walked through the higher mountains yesterday as today the cloud came down and the forecast was for rain. However rested from a good night's sleep and with the knowledge of only 7 km to do today to complete one of my "missing links" it was ultreia! First village to encounter was Campo. 
Typical narrow streets linear settlement and on a hill- almost like the Black Country! Very few people about but I did speak to three guys between here and Ponferrada. 

Lovely bridge to mark the entrance to the town. Ponferrada has plenty of them. It's most famous as you might expect is Pons Ferrada - Iron Bridge. 
it was iron and steel and coal that put this place on the map during the Nineteenth century as in many parts of Western Europe. 
This industry saw the building of a now closed railway from Ponferrada to the mines and up the valleys. Narrow gauge and "vapor" of course. The railway closed in the late Twentieth century and the station at Ponferrada is now a museum site with some of the old locomotives and memorabilia. For a train anorack like me it was a great way to spend an hour or so and whilst I took many photos I resist the urge to put 40 in this blog! 
It's good to be reminded sometimes that "progress" wasn't exclusively something that happened to Britain, as indeed the post industrial challenges of the present. 

The morning ended with the midday office said in the church attached to the Albergue. It was one of those places that reeks of prayer. Even the artificial candles twinkled playfully rather than somewhat forlornly as some here do. 


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