This schedule on the wall of a cafe explains village life fairly well.
“We open when we arrive,
we close when we leave,
and if you come and we aren’t here,
its because we didn’t coincide.”

Friday we were able to visit several villages, one of which was Compludo. It is tucked away away in a valley about 35 minutes from Ponferrada.

This village is about 30 minutes from our home and has a Tejo (yew tree?) which is over 1200 years old.

While our friends were here from Salamanca we took a quick trip to a few new villages.

A few photos from a trip to Villanueva and San Andres

There is a tradition here in Spain of eating twelve grapes at midnight on December 31st. It has been an essential element of the Spanish New Year for over 100 years.

You may think it is easy. But it takes dedication, skill, selection, and seriousness to pull it off. Sadly, we have few of those qualities.

It is harder than it looks from SCQuest on Vimeo.

Doesn’t everybody go on their morning walks around town with a three foot long scythe?

Because we are celebrating our Thanksgiving this coming Sunday with friends from Ponferrada, on Thanksgiving Thursday we took off to visit a village in the northwest of El Bierzo. When we got there we realized we would get to play in the snow!

Leon is the name of our province, where we live. While my parents were here we were able to see some sites in the capital city, Leon as well as Molinaseca, Ponferrada, Peñalba, and Villafranca. Here are some pictures. For more, click here.