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.