I'm not very keen on the pic today but Roger thinks it's funny that if you look closely there is a stork coming out of the top of my head. Well haha. You know sometimes when you get off a plane in a foreign country and think please turn the oven off, it's been a bit like that today. We are having a heat wave which if we were poolside would be fabulous. But nor great with 16 miles to walk. We went into Ponferrada town early on which was bearable and managed a coffee but after that it was v hot. The area has a microclimate and has a fine local wine Bierzo - another serious recommendation for wine lovers , especially the red - and also so many cherry trees and I persuaded R to do a bit of scrimping for me to keep up the energy. So imagine my delight when we arrived at our hotel which is now my favourite place to stay.. We were met with a cold glass of wine and the best empedamas which are like a Cornish pasty and then shown to lovely room with a jacuzzi bath. So washed the heat of the day away and had a good evening meal with our first broccoli and green beans for weeks.. Just deciding whether we have enough energy to watch the first Copa de Mundo match but think we should save ourselves for Spain's match tomorrow. Luckily we are on the flat tomorrow but a huge climb the day after but I'm sure the weather is going to break with a huge storm. Won't that be fun on a mountainside. The new pilgrims start arriving from this point so we've been trying to book some accommodation ahead. R impressed my evening class Spanish is good enough to book rooms but only as long as they don't ask me any questions. And thank god Isobel us a Spanish name.