Friday, April 22: Caceres to Casar de Caceres

6.9 miles

I took this photo of a street in Caceres as we were leaving on our walk

Half of the walk was quite unpleasant— in the rain and on the narrow shoulder of a busy undivided highway with cars and trucks zipping by at high speed. Fortunately, 19 out of 20 Spanish drivers do give pedestrians a wide berth! We were quite happy to leave the highway for a little used farm road albeit one with quite a few deep muddy puddles.

We entered Casar de Caceres on a pleasant tree-lined walkway with little panels identifying the trees. We were happily surprised to discover that the tree ”Siri” kept telling us was a ”chinaberry tree” was indeed a ”chinaberry tree.”

Casar de Caceres (population roughly 5,000) is famous for the Torta de Casar, a runny, somewhat smelly sheep’s cheese, that can be eaten with a spoon. I’m still working on developing a taste!

We took a taxi back to Caceres intending to have pasta and butter for dinner. Regrettably, our induction cooktop didn’t work forcing us to resort to Plan B: bread and cheese (torta de Casar, in fact) and tomatoes and cucumbers and strawberries.

Thursday: April 21: Aldea del Cano to Caceres

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.

Stephen under very large oak!
More sheep than we’ve seen before
Dog knows what he is doing
No agua; no refrescos

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.

Loved this path!

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.

Paseo de Canovas, Caceres

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.

View of Plaza Mayor from apartment: The square is cordoned off for the San Jorge (Saint George) festivities at 9:30 this evening

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!

Cathedral

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!

Gazpacho made with almonds and garlic topped with a sardine and diced melon: better than it sounds

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…!

Wednesday, April 20: Alcuescar to Aldea del Cano

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.

Stephen on 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.

Stephen and original Roman miliario

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.

Plaza Mayor; Aldea del Cano (Our hotel is the smallest of the buildings on the right)

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).

Lunch

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

Tuesday, April 19: Aljucen to Alcuescar and a detour to the Visigothic Basilica of Santa Lucia del Trampal

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.

Breakfast
Leaving Aljucen

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).

Parque Natural de Cornalvo: Spanish lavender in foreground

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.

Stephen walking in path through rock roses (they are much less attractive on the side of a highway and viewed from a car)

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.

Alcuescar

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.

Basilica Visigodo de Santa Lucia del Trampal

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

Basilica: side aisle

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.

Monday, April 18: Merida to Aljucen

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.

Aqueducto de 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).

Stephen at the Embalse de Proserpina

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.

Peristyle

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.

Sunday, April 17: Rest day in Merida

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.

Entrance to Amphitheater
Teatro Romano
Middle-aged Augustus as Supreme Pontiff: Museo de Arte Romano
Underground passage leading to cistern in 9thC Almohad tower once part of the Moorish fortress
Cistern in tower
Detail on Visigothic column reused by Moors
Temple to Diana (misnamed because it was actually a temple to the Augustan cult)
City street
Temple to Mars repurposed as a shrine to the 4th C child Saint Eulalia
13thC Iglesia de Santa Eulalia
Circo Romano where chariot races were held: too large for me to photograph (some structures are still visible)
Casa del Mitreo: section of mosaic representing the myth of the origin of the Roman universe
Semana Santa Parade
Plaza de Espana

Saturday, April 16: Almendralejo to Merida

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.

Leaving Almendralejo
Calzada Romana

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.

Very strange place to dump old pinball machine parts

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

Path leading to Puente Romano
(Part of the) Puente Romano viewed from the Alcazaba walls
Modern Puente Lusitania (cars) over the River Guadiana

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.

Friday, April 15 (Good Friday): Villafranca de los Barros to Almendralejo

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.

One of many vineyards….

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!

Good piece of meat: enough for 2 or 3 and not what I need!!

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!

Thursday, April 14th: Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros

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).

Detail from Puerta del Perdon

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

Semana Santa (Holy Week) float

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…!

Official camino signage

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!

More frequent kind of signage: you don’t want to miss any turns!
Route marker signifying that you are walking on the Camino (yellow) and simultaneously on a Roman road (green)

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

Giant fennel

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).

Patterson’s Curse

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.

Wednesday, April 13th: Fuente de Cantos to Zafra

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.

Breakfast

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.

A few of many…

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.

Entering Calzadilla de los Barros: about 5 miles from Fuente de Cantos

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.

Entering Zafra: he’s still energetic enough to pick one of those sour Seville oranges that no one else seems to want. Nice smell!
Our digs for the night: former (15th C) palace of the Dukes of Feria built over a Muslim fortress
Marble courtyard of the Parador

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

Plaza Grande

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

Plaza Chica: much quieter