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.