Month: April 2022

15.4 miles on a combination of country roads and Roman roads often paralleling the highway. Lovely day and lovely walk. Dehesas, scrub, pastures (some with large herds of cows or sheep), some straggly vegetation.

We stopped at a pretty well stocked tienda in Valdesalor, a modern community of 600 people, and bought bocadillos. We munched as we walked along.

We managed to lose all the yellow arrows on the outskirts of Caceres and made our way to the Plaza Mayor via the park below.

Caceres (pop. 95,000) has a compact walled old town of honey colored, well preserved, mostly 15th-16th C palaces (really fortress houses with towers) and churches. Much of its wealth stemmed from the riches brought back by conquistadores.

We are staying four nights- hiking northwards on 2 days (commuting back and forth by taxi) and taking a rest day to soak up any sights we might have missed on previous days.

For the first 2 nights, we have a little studio apartment that fronts on the Plaza Mayor, right opposite the entrance to the old town.

We went food shopping and salivated at the number of heladerias (ice cream shops), panaderias (bakeries), pastelarias (pastry shops) and other stores—Civilization!!

We walked into the old town to take a look at the Cathedral—all we had time to do since Stephen had an appointment for a haircut!

We went out to a restaurant for dinner (regrettably dinner starts sometime between 8:30 and 9:30; 8:00 if you’re lucky) and skipped dessert so we could dash back to our apartment for the festivities!

We had a front row seat for the festivities which combine the real life battles between the Moors and the Christians with the mythical story of Saint George and the dragon. A big screen was set up in the Plaza, everything was amplified and there were throngs of people…

I watched a little and then fell into bed…!

9.4 miles; flat

It had rained during the night and it was too cold to sit outside for breakfast. We shared the dining room with two ”peregrinos”, Bret (from New York) and Tomas (from Hungary). Bret is quite a character. He came down to breakfast wearing a poncho. I could see why Stephen ( who had met him in Villafranca de los Barros) had mistaken him for an out of work Spanish pilgrim!

After breakfast, we took a taxi back to Alcuescar to resume our Camino. ”Hay mucho viento, hoy!” said Stephen to the bus driver. (It is very windy today!)

And indeed it was. What should have been a nice walk alongside olive groves and dehesas turned into an unpleasant struggle against the wind!

We walked across a lovely medieval bridge (originally Roman) across a tributary of the Rio Ayuela and crossed a stream over a little Roman bridge.

We walked directly atop a Roman road with some of the original miliarios ( markers denoting each Roman mile -1480 meters) still in place.

Took a 600m detour to Aldea del Cano (pop. 699), a pleasant, sleepy village with a church, a Casa Rural, an albergue, two restaurants, a bakery which was never open when we were around, and a pharmacy.

We have a large, clean, attractively furnished room and bathroom (55 euros). The house also has very comfortable common areas and a patio with a clothes line for drying clothes.

Since we had such a short hiking day, we treated ourselves to a very pleasant sit down lunch at the nearby Restaurante La Posada. (We were the only guests in the restaurant).

Teresa, our hostess, made us a simple dinner and left us breakfast makings. (29 euros)

Total distance 15.2 miles (12.2 miles without the detour)

We had a lovely breakfast overlooking the peristyle/gardens. The gardens are a mix of plants that the Romans would have recognized (roses, lilacs, citron) and others that Noemi, our hostess, likes (e.g. wisteria). Noemi is a very charming and thoughtful person. Her husband, Santiago, is an archaeologist who works in Merida in the mornings and is the “resident slave” in the afternoons.

Much of our walk to Alcuescar was through the Parque Natural de Cornalvo, a bird sanctuary. It was a beautiful day for a walk in beautiful country. (It was cloudy and the temperatures were about 20 degrees cooler than the day before).

Predominantly holm oaks and large stands of cistus bushes (akin to yellow broom), Spanish lavender and white rock roses. Also cork oaks, pink rock roses, asphodel, vines, olives and livestock and outcroppings of granite with some boulders resembling erratics. Bird song. Many white storks and colorful birds Stephen thinks may be hoopoes.

During our walk through the park, we saw no other human being other than two lone cyclists. We saw (and heard) two military jets, which together with another we spotted the previous day, totaled three non-bird objects we had seen in the sky since we began our walk!

At the exit to the park, we crossed from the province of Badajoz to the province of Caceres (both in Extremadura) and encountered Rudy, a German pilgrim we had met the day before.

We stopped at a bar in Alcuescar for some sparkling water.

Alcuescar (population 3000) is a cute hillside town with winding streets which has seen better days.

We walked from the Plaza de Espana to the Visigothic Basilica (8th or more probably 9th C). The Basilica was once part of a Monasterial complex which included two churches —Santa Lucia and Santiago— and extensive olive groves and orchards in an unpopulated area. It is the only Visigothic building still standing in Southern Spain.

The walk to the Basilica was stunning—cork oaks, strawberry trees, wildflowers!

We took a taxi (pre-arranged) back to the Casa Rural in Aljucen, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner of dishes largely made from Roman recipes.

10.9 miles

Our wedding anniversary which we were reminded of by Stephen’s sister, Lisa. We had a nice breakfast. We were sad to leave our lovely room as it had been a haven for us!

We left Merida by way of the ruins of the Roman Aqueduct of Milagros.

About 5 kms later we came to the Embalse de Proserpina, which had once supplied Merida with water via the Aqueduct of Milagros and several other aqueducts. It was the biggest reservoir in the Roman Mediterranean world and is still in use (though it doesn’t supply water to Merida any longer).

We were soon in the country side, first on a little used paved road and then on a path, through olive groves, dehesas (those lovely meadows of holm oaks and grazing livestock) and yellow, pink, purple and white flowers.

We walked through the little hamlet of El Carrascalejo (population 68) and soon arrived in Aljucen.

Aljucen is a pleasant little village of 255 people with a church, two bars (although only one seemed to be open), a small tienda with very limited hours, an albergue, and a casa rural.

We stayed at the casa rural for two nights (168 euros) in a decent sized, reasonably comfortable room, which I will describe in one word: ”characterful”. The casa rural is a Roman themed house, complete with baths, an atrium, peristyle, triclinium and shrine, and which has a restaurant which serves Roman themed meals most days of the week.

Monday was not one of those days so we ate a pretty terrible lunch and dinner at the local bar.

We heard from all the kids.

We had a very happy day visiting the sights. There are more Roman ruins here than anywhere else in Spain! It wasn’t exactly a rest day as we managed to clock in 10.5 miles.

Long hot day (although it was in the 50s when we started at 8:40 am). 19.2 miles and in the mid-eighties when we arrived in Merida.

N.B. I haven’t a clue how to do accents on my iPhone so all accents are missing.

We rejoined the Calzada Romana after 4 km and walked along vineyards and olive groves almost all the way (roughly 7 and a half miles) to Torremejia.

Torremejia (pop. 2000) is a depressingly unattractive place. One pilgrim suggested that it was a place to walk through without stopping.

From Torremejia, we paralleled or walked on the busy N-630 for about 5 miles. We left the highway for good on a path overgrown with purple and yellow wildflowers. We then walked along more vineyards and olive groves and hillsides covered with oaks and broom.

We entered Merida on a path along the River Guadiana which we crossed via the pedestrianized Puente Romano.

Stephen was ready to be done walking for the day.

(The Puente Romano at 800 meters in length is the longest bridge still standing from ancient times. Stephen would want me to mention that it was largely rebuilt after being bombed by the British during the Napoleonic wars.)

Merida (Emerita Augusta; population 58,000) was founded by Augustus in the first century A.D. with the twin aims of settling ”emeritus” (veteran soldiers of foreign legions) and protecting the strategic bridge over the River Guadiana. Merida was the main Roman city in the SW of the Iberian Peninsula and is today awash with Roman ruins, many repurposed first by the Visigoths, then by the Moors and finally by the Christians.

The route between Merida and the gold mines of Asturica Augusta (Astorga) was a strategic route which was the initial ”Via de la Plata.”

We have a luxurious room at the Parador and are looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. We are both a little dehydrated.

10.6 miles (includ. 4km detour off the camino)

Very flat stage with olive groves and vineyards stretching to the hills on the horizon. Red clay.

Some straggly vegetation and wild flowers—thistles, mallow, corn camomile, white broom, poppies, white rocket, spitting cucumber, sperges, wild radish, reseda.

Much of the stage was on the Calzada Romana (old Roman road). We took a detour off the camino along an old dirt road to Almendralejo—a leap of faith since it was hard to believe that there was anything along this desolate road!

Almendralejo is a town of 35,000 people which prides itself on its wine production. We entered town along a dispiriting street of car dealerships, some selling quite expensive cars. It was in the eighties and felt unbearably hot.

There may be nice sections of town but we never saw them. Our two star hotel is on an ugly street in an area full of old apartment buildings. We have a clean basic room (55 euros).

The hotel is close to a restaurant (which is good as we have no desire to venture far in the heat). The restaurant serves highly overpriced food with very high quality ingredients. I think that the waiter deliberately steered us to the highest priced items on the menu without letting us know that the portions were so incredibly large that one portion was more than enough for both if us. (There was no written menu!) Lunch and dinner each cost substantially more than our hotel room—highway robbery in these parts!

We bought supplies (bread and bad pastries and fruit) for breakfast and lunch at three different little stores — two run by Asians and one by Rumanians. The chain supermarket was closed for the holiday!

13.1 miles

Pleasant exit from Zafra onto a country road. After about 5 km, we came to the town of Los Santos de Maimona—population 8000; a former Roman town and important center of the Knights of Santiago (St. James). The Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles has a pleasant interior and a noteworthy Plateresque door of forgiveness (Puerta del Perdon).

People were working on floats for the Semana Santa parades inside the church.

After leaving the town, we had a little difficulty route finding.

In general, walking a camino is a little like ”following the yellow brick road.” You follow the Camino yellow arrows. Unfortunately, at times, you may have a plethora of conflicting arrows as when we entered Fuente de Cantos. At other times, arrows may be sparse, such as when entering or leaving a big city. If you happen to miss an arrow…!

It is best to supplement with some kind of navigational app. I am using AlllTrails supplemented by the maps on the very basic ”Wise Pilgrim” app. Close to and in towns, we often use Google maps. Stephen has been very good about reminding me to check that we’re going the right way!

Figs, other fruit trees (almonds, peaches?), vineyards and olive groves and Extremaduran red clay (very messy when wet). (“Barros” means clay or mud.)

Many wild orchids, thyme, sages and other salvias, borage, giant fennel, wild daisies, corn camomile, Patterson’s Curse (ubiquitous and poisonous to horses but pretty purple flowers).

Vegetable gardens: artichokes, fava beans, chard.

Stand of bamboo.

Short walk along highway before following another country road into Villafranca los Barros

Villafranca de los Barros (pop. 13,000) is a lively town of white washed houses with a number of pleasant squares where people socialize.

We are staying in a 3 star hotel in the less attractive modern town. Our room is basic but clean (45 euros). It has marble floors. There is a restaurant and cafeteria.

16.2 miles

Lovely sunny day. No rain in forecast for several days.

Stephen made us breakfast and then made sandwiches for lunch while I cleaned and tidied up.

I am really working on the IT band stretches. I wish i had a foam roller!

This is a pretty flat stage!

We walked out of town on an unpaved road. We initially encountered a few locals jogging or walking but we were soon quite alone. The dehesas have given way to olive groves and vineyards.

We also saw fields of grain, fig trees, almond and peach(?) trees, and at the sides of the road—anise, giant fennel, mustard, vetch, Spanish lavender, thistles, Patterson’s Curse, corn camomile, wild daisies and wild orchids. We passed several pig farming operations, and grazing horses and sheep.

We made a little detour to the church in Calzadilla de los Barros to try to see its famous retablo. However, like many churches in little villages in Spain, it was shut tight!

Our challenge for the day was avoiding muddy puddles, some of them quite deep! At one stage, we had to cross a stream. It was fairly deep and very muddy and there weren’t quite enough stones to get across without getting our boots very wet. However, Stephen who went first, very adeptly used one of his poles to move one stone onto another one, which gave us just that extra needed step!!

We eventually encountered some other hikers—a German couple — who were making very slow progress. The wife seemed to be limping but they spoke to us cheerily enough. Since we could do nothing for them, we didn’t ask any questions, which i later regretted.

We did have some road walking on entering Zafra, mostly on a little used road. Stephen’s feet were hurting by this time and he was ready to get to our lodging for the night.

Zafra (population of about 16,500) has a lively old town of cobbled streets. It is a very pleasant place to spend some time.

The outdoor cafes around the Plaza Grande and the streets of the old town were all full of people

12.8 miles

It was raining as we left town and constantly threatening thereafter but it didn’t really fall heavily until we reached our destination.

Another day of beautiful dehesas (the meadows with holm oaks and grazing livestock).

Many purple and yellow and white flowers (various species of broom, Patterson’s Curse — pretty purple flowers but poisonous to horses, thistles, wild radish, corn camomile, among others). Increasing numbers of a species of broom (Retama) with a passing resemblance to Palo Verde. The dehesas eventually gave way to fields of grain — wheat and barley.

Fuente de Cantos (pop. 5000) is another pretty town of white-washed houses. It is livelier and more upscale than any of the others we have passed through.

We have a nicely furnished two-bedroom apartment in a 19th C building with characteristic Extremaduran architecture. It is comfortably equipped with many thoughtful features. Most importantly, it has a washing machine. Stephen is quite the fan!! (64 euros)

We walked into the old town (5 mins) to see a 15th C church. There were people inside finalizing the decorations for some floats in the Semana Santa parade that night.

We went to a supermarket and bought supplies for dinner and breakfast and lunch the next day.

Stephen the Great made omelets and rice for dinner (and cleaned up). I did IT band stretches and worked on our rain gear.

We were too tired to go into the old town to watch the parade at 8:30!