From
Riego de Ambros, we set off early to Camponaraya. Riego was a small town so it wasn't long before we were out and on our way. Our first stop was the town of Molinaseca where we had our morning ritual of café con leche and some of their delightful local pastries. Afterwards, we headed to the small church to say our daily prayers before heading off. Quite a lot of pilgrims rested here for
the night so we saw some familiar faces as we were walking
out of town.
The stretch from Molinaseca was
where we first saw Nancy
and Peter while they stopped off the side of the road. But we didn't really strike a conversation as we had to keep walking, we just exchanged the basic "Buen camino!" greetings.
After we passed them, we again set off for our own separate walks. This was where we met a delightful
young lady named Taylor. I was walking by myself as Angie already went ahead when this lone pilgrim passed. I liked the way she greeted me good morning because it wasn't a hurried one. She actually looked at my face when she said hello, then she slowed down beside me and started a conversation. I can't remember if it was me or my pack which she said looked familiar. But she said we greeted each other on the way to Cruz de Ferro the previous day. She was walking only up to Ponferrada today to meet her uncle and aunt. They planned to spend the night and from there go together to O’Cebreiro. We walked together until we caught up with my sister, from there, they walked ahead together since they were roughly on the same pace and I really needed to slow down. 
It was early afternoon when we got to Ponferrada. We explored the external part of the old castle together but we
didn’t join her anymore as she went inside. She was already where she was
supposed to be while we still had about 8 km. to walk before calling it a day.
Unfortunately, as was bound to happen at some
point during the walk, our feet and ankles started complaining big time as we
were heading out of town. So, walking the rest of the day was out. But through
the kindness of strangers, we got a taxi to take us the last 6 kilometres to
Camponaraya. The albergue at Camponaraya was where we encountered Peter and
Nancy again.
After we got settled in the albergue and finished our laundry, we went to the nearest pharmacy and did the camino version of going on a shopping spree. That basically means we went crazy for foot implements. The kindly pharmacist spoke a bit of English. She answered our questions and gave recommendations on what we she thought we needed based on what she saw and we said of our feet’s condition.
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