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)