Author: Janet

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!

El Real de la Jara to Monasterio (14.3 miles)

We crossed from Andalucia into Extremadura shortly after leaving El Real de la Jara.

A lot of the walk was along a wide dirt track (somewhat muddy after recent rains) along beautiful meadows with holm oaks and happy livestock (cows or pigs).
Yellow and purple wildflowers (species of broom and Patterson’s curse-/pretty flowers but poisonous to horses). The skies were cloudy with threatening rain. There were a couple of busy traffic circles to be crossed and some road walking including along the busy N-630 while entering Monasterio.

Stephen is still trying to understand how the grass is able to grow under the oaks. We have seen crews aggressively trimming the oaks and he speculates that the grass is able to grow because enough light filters through the leaves. I am quite sure, however, that no grass would grow under the California live oaks even if we did trim them aggressively!

Monasterio is a town of about 4000 people which prides itself on being the ham and sausage capital of Spain. Its emblem is a ham and there is a ham museum in town!

We are staying at a four star business hotel — more like a motel with a cafeteria and restaurant. We have a very large and comfortable suite (95 euros).

We ate an early dinner (during the lunch hour) in the restaurant—my first real food in about 5 days (consommé and a tiny amount of pasta with tomato sauce!!)

Happy news which I have neglected to mention earlier:

Robert and Carmen announced their engagement on April 2!!

Almaden de la Plata to El Real de la Jara (distance 10.2 miles)

Still on bread and water diet. Stephen is eating a little better although not by much since we only snack on the few items we are sometimes able to purchase.

Beautiful walk along meadows of holm oak and some cork oak. Smaller variety if wildflowers than yesterday but a lot of cistus bushes and species of broom (yellow flowers) and rockroses. Also pigs, horses, sheep and goats. Frequent but modest ups and downs.

El Real de la Jara is a pretty hillside town with a population of about 1600 people.

We checked into our hostel in an unattractive industrial area. The hostel itself was a tad depressing with very unattractive room furnishings and bedding. However, the room was quite large and there was a washer AND DRIER!! in the bathroom (60 euros).

Walked into town for water and up to the 14th C castle of unknown origin (but undoubtedly Christian).

We walked from Hotel Castillo Blanco to Castilblanco (pop. 5000) to Almaden de la Plata (pop.1500), a distance of roughly 18 miles. The stage begins with a long stretch of road walking—16 km or 10 miles. The stress was relieved by the sight of the beautiful dehesas we walked alongside, the beautiful wildflowers, including two varieties of rock roses, broom, and pea plants, and a chorus of bird song! We were also spurred on by the groups of friendly, cheery cyclists out for their Saturday ride or possibly cycling the VDLP and all wishing us a

“Buen Camino.”

The second part of the stage is through the Parque Natural de Sierra Norte. We walked along thousands of cork oaks and dehesas, followed by a veritable botanical garden of wildflowers. Less appealing were the areas of replanted pine and eucalyptus. Even though it was only about 70 degrees, we felt very hot and tired for the short steep ascent to the top of a hill followed by a steepish descent to the town of Almaden de la Plata.

Almaden is a pretty little town of traditional white houses. Quarrying for marble was very important during Roman times and there are still marble fragments on the trails.

We stayed at a little hostal in a basic but not unattractive room with wooden ceiling beams and a little balcony (45 euros; no food services). Regrettably, there was a strong smell of cigarette smoke!

We checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to Guillena. After a sleepless night, I realized that tacking on an additional 8 miles to the roughly 11 from Guillena to our destination of Castilblanco was impossible in my condition— and on the mostly bread and water or only water diet!

Guillena is a town of roughly 12,000 people. The houses are white-washed with broad mustard-yellow trims with iron grilles on the lower windows (a description of many of the houses we’ve been encountering)!

Guillena to Hotel Castillo Blanco

Distance 11.4 miles; elev. gain 1522 ft (AllTrails)

Except for a short final stretch on a path bordering a busy road, this was a quiet walk in the country—view back towards Seville, large olive plantations, some citrus, holm oaks, bamboo, palmettos and beautiful wild flowers (including rock roses and red poppies).

We arrived in Seville to sunny skies and high sixties temperatures. In contrast to Switzerland, COVID numbers are low but masks are required indoors.

Our hotel was on a quiet lane in the Barrio Santa Cruz, a popular tourist area that was once (prior to their expulsion in 1492), home to Seville’s Jewish population.

Although it rained some during much of our stay, we had a lovely time revisiting sights we had seen in 2010 with the kids, as well as seeing new ones.

We ate Lebanese/Moroccan food and sea food and tapas, some of it quite excellent. On Wednesday evening, we ate at a very fancy restaurant serving food made with locally sourced ingredients which may have been my downfall (see below).

We took a private walking tour of a section of the Barrio Santa Cruz with a focus on the Jewish experience in Seville. Not surprisingly, after so many centuries, there are few tangible reminders. However, it was interesting getting one Spaniard’s take on the expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition.

Thursday, April 7

Our plan was to hike the first section of the Via de la Plata (VDLP) to Guillena (a basically flat stage of about 13.5 miles) but to return to Seville to spend the night. It was not to be. I was unable to continue past the Roman site of Italica (roughly 8 miles short of our destination) because of a stomach bug. One highlight of that first day was the walk along the river. The area has a somewhat seedy reputation. However, it seems to have been cleaned up and the abundance and variety of wild flowers at this time of year made the walk almost pleasurable even though I was feeling less than 100 percent. Another highlight was visiting the Italica site even though I readily confess that I was in no condition to appreciate it!

Italica was the birthplace of the emperors Hadrian and Trajan and quite a few Roman senators. Much of it is buried under the town of Santiponce. However, you can visit the huge amphitheater (built in the time of Hadrian) which could seat 20,000-25,000 people, as well as several houses. Incidentally, the amphitheater was the Dragon Pit in the Game of Thrones.

We arrived in Zurich late Friday, April 1 to a mixture of snow and rain. That very day, and despite high COVID numbers, the Swiss had removed all mask requirements!

We spent a very happy 48 hours (less really) hanging out with David. It snowed lightly all day Saturday but we enjoyed wondering around and seeing where David lives and works. Zurich was absolutely beautiful in the snow. On Sunday, we ate a leisurely breakfast and walked along the lake and to the Wesendonck Villa. Our time was over all too soon!

We spent a lot of time deciding on the right packs for the trip. In the end, Stephen chose to go with his old Osprey Exos 58. I decided to buy a new Osprey Lumina 45 because it was 2 lbs lighter than my more sophisticated Osprey pack.

March 2022

We are finally embarked on the trip we had planned for the same time (almost to the day) in 2020. We are planning to take a somewhat leisurely stroll (albeit carrying all our gear) from Seville to Santiago de Compostela — a distance of roughly 1000 kilometers — along the Via de la Plata. This route was used for hundreds of years to transport armies and materials (including metals) and cattle (and pilgrims). However, despite the name, it was never used to transport silver.

The most commonly cited explanation for the origin of the name is that it is a corrupted version of the Arabic term ”Al-Balat” which supposedly means ”cobbled road”, although I could find no such translation. Other explanations are that the name was derived from ”Lapidata” meaning “stone road” or “Platea” meaning “wide road”.

Although Spain is not without its share of mountains, the route along a series of interconnected Roman roads (the Romans often adapted pre-existing indigenous roads) is fairly flat — without any major ascents or descents such as the hike over the Pyrenees at the start of the far more popular Camino Frances. (This is not to say that we won’t notice a few hills).

We are planning to take time to enjoy the sights as we walk through the autonomous communities of Andalucia, Extremadura, Castile y Leon and Galicia. We shall visit Roman ruins (notably in Italica, Merida and Caparra), a couple of Visigothic structures, and the Unesco World Heritage cities of Merida, Caceres and Salamanca.

The route splits approximately 40 km north of the town of Zamora. We shall take the left fork which heads west to Santiago and does not connect with the Camino Frances (as does the right fork).

En route to Seville, we shall stop in Zurich for a couple of nights to see David.

I promise that future posts will be much briefer!

Robert has been fired from his role as updater-in-chief. Janet’s reign begins.