Day 32 Entrepenas to Puebla de Sanabria

Puebla de Sanabria is the last stage of this journey. The last section will need to wait. But Puebla de Sanabria is a beautiful place to end up in.

So having stayed overnight in Puebla, go a taxi back to yesterday's end point, the little village of Entrepenas. The driver seemed a bit unconvinced as to why anyone would want to go to Entrepenas but eventually got to the tiny square with its gorgeous simple church. Today was one of those perfect days - the sky impossibly blue, not too warm and the way was made of soft tracks.

Bar Mirador in Palacios de Sanabria was the lunch stop. Sat on wobbly red plastic chairs in the sun and drank beer and chatted to a mad pilgrim (who presumably in his blog also refers to talking to a mad pilgrim). Palacios de Sanabria implies a rich history of palaces - but there wasn't anything to be seen. This is border country - 800 years ago the Portuguese and Leon kingdoms were fighting for possession. I can see why - a pleasant, rich landscape.

After lunch, one walked through the woods on a track, unfortunately attracting hug swarms of flies who, to be honest, get a bit bored in this remote countryside. The word went out quickly and soon there were rather a lot of flies coming close to enjoy the presence of foreign blood. After a couple of miles of constant swatting it got to me. I was trying to work out what the weight would be of a hat with an electric flykiller on top, complete with batteries and then realised it might be simpler to cut south out of the woods and say goodbye to my six-legged friends.

Puebla is a dramatic town. Built on an outcrop in the bend of a river, it is crowned with a castle and of course a nice steep climb is a great way to end a stage. The town is all smart old buildings with wooden balconies and charming alleys.

Actually the climb was repeated - although staying in the old town, the hotel was at the bottom of the hill. The restaurants were at the top. I can recommend the Restaurante la Carteria on the main road up to the castle. The Restaurante La Posada de la Puebla de Sanabria up in the Plaza Major near the church was also nice.

The castle itself is well worth a visit. It's well preserved and the views from the top are worth the climb. They also had some funky little metal statues if you fancy sitting on Don Quixote's cold knee.

And in the evening nothing better than to watch the moon rise in the Eastern sky.

So the next morning, the train to get back home. Puebla is on the main line (although the walk to the station is about 1.5km) and the train to Madrid was clean, efficient and full. On arrival at Madrid, it was clear this was some kind of Camino-Hogwarts type train - huge numbers of rucksacks appeared with scallop shells as intercontinental pilgrims made their way to Madrid airport for flights home. So many happy faces. It's time to plan the next one.