Via de la Plata - 2014

The aquaduct in Merida We really enjoyed our rest day in Merida. W e spent considerable time in the Roman Amphitheatre, the adjacent Roman Theatre and the nearby museum, an impressive modern building housing a remarkable collection of Roman artefacts. Later we were in the crypt of St Eulalia, looked at the Hippodrome through a fence and walked through Trajan's Arch. At night we were able to attend the vigil Mass at 8:30 in the mediaeval church beside our hotel. Afterwards we splashed out on a wonderful meal, eaten outdoors in the grounds of the hotel, separated by wrought iron railings from the hundreds of locals enjoying their Saturday night out. The extravagance, and the rest day, was accounted for by the fact that we were celebrating our 45 th   wedding anniversary. The Amphitheatre The  Theatre The Theatre Inside the museum - followed by three photographs of exhibits Celebrating 45 years of marriage Next:  Stage...

Pilgrims from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Ireland Today it was back to the early start to avoid the heat. About four of the first five kilometres were uphill but I find myself managing the hills better - still trailing Pauline though. Almost exactly six hours after leaving our hotel we were in this 12-bed albergue. Shortly before arriving we were caught in a short but heavy shower. A bush provide partial shelter but we were both quite wet - a short walk in the sun soon cured that. In the hours of darkness we had been watching the occasional lightning flash far to the north. Suddenly the Camino is getting crowded. Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. We were surprised to see another two pilgrims arrive at our hotel yesterday but didn't get the chance to speak to them until today when they stopped at the local restaurant. They are a Swiss couple, planning to walk from Merida to Salamanca on this occasion - they had previously walked from Seville to Merida. We a...

The albergue is the top floor of the home of a religious congregation who care for 75 people with special needs What seemed like something of a disaster at 8:00am we can view in the afternoon as a minor hiccup, now that our stomachs are again full and the day's walking is over. One guidebook suggested we had 21km to walk so we had our earliest start to date. We set off at 5:25am with two bocadillos to sustain us on a journey of over six hours. We also had two squares of chocolate and one boiled sweet. We limited ourselves to a drink of water at our 6:30 stop - of course we had plenty of water and could drink at any time.  At 7:15 we shared one of the squares of chocolate. The plan was to eat half a bocadillo each at 8 o'clock but when we removed the foil wrapping we discovered that they were crawling with ants. There was nothing for it but to abandon the two bocadillos. We should have stored them in the fridge overnight but we were planning a quick getaway without disturbin...

One of the many beautiful sunrises we experienced on the way The albergue we were staying in was on the top floor of the monastery residence and, as it was not due to open until 7:00am, we had an enforced lie-in – not that we were complaining, and not that we would consider getting up at 6:15 a lie-in if we were at home. Everyone but the three Spanish women and ourselves were ready to go before seven and the doors were open for them so we did not get the chance to say goodbye. We started downstairs at seven carrying two bocadillos which the ants were not going to enjoy. Today's itinerary was either going to be 16km or 26km. We opted for the former which meant that the latish start was not an issue. Until the heat of the sun became noticeable at around 9:30, it was an easy day's walking and we had completed almost 8km in the first two hours. We slowed down after that; to pick a few blackberries, to take pictures of Roman bridges and Milaria, and to shelter from the...

The "Improved" Roman Bridge This morning it was a choice of an 11km or a 22km walk. We might have been tempted to try the latter but that would have left us wrecked arriving in Caceres. We hope to have some energy left to view this city which dates from Roman times and is a World Heritage site. Faced with another short walk, we were happy enough to leave at 7:00am. With nothing more than gentle slopes to deal with, 11.5km was manageable and we arrived at our albergue around 10:45am. There was nothing much to report on other than that we passed more cattle today than we did on the previous 12 days. We also crossed another Roman bridge which was described in a guide book as the "improved Roman Bridge". I'm not sure if that means the Romans were getting better at bridge building when they got to this one or if it was improved by others over the centuries. It also appeared to have rained overnight. Nine of the 14 beds in this albergue are in use tonigh...

The Plaza Mayor - Caceres We were planning another 7:00am start but decided to get up at 6:15 when only ourselves and one other peregrino were still in bed. The others must have been very quiet as Pauline had to wake me. We were on the road at 6:45 with no great hurry on us as we had just around 11km to do again. We had four km behind us and on our first break when Matthew and Vanessa caught up with us. Matthew was carrying a smallish guitar and, when we commented on this, Vanessa persuaded him to sing a song for us. He obliged with one of his compositions, a song about love on the Camino. Only on the Camino do such things happen. See Matthew Mutch We continued on our way, had a break at nine with Caceres already in view, and decided to forego our ten o'clock break in the hope of finding a cafe with WiFi. It must have been near 11:00 before we were successful. There we enjoyed fresh orange juice, coffee and toast with butter and jam for €2.50 each. When we were in ...

Entering Casar de Cáseres It took me longer than usual to get ready this morning so it was 7:10am before we left the albergue. The guide book said go past the bull ring but did not say which side. We asked a couple out for their morning walk who turned out to be very helpful. They were going in our direction, or possibly decided to go in our direction, and took us to the final roundabout after which we couldn't go wrong. We did the first four kilometres in an hour but it was almost all downhill and along the side of a main road. The amount of traffic coming towards us reminded Pauline of Monument Road (the rural road on which we live) in the morning. After 4km we were directed on to a good quality dirt track which continued until the outskirts of this small town. On the road we were passed first by Christina from Austria and a short time later by Matthew and Vanessa. Without the guidance we had, the two Canadians had taken the wrong exit off the roundabout and lost some t...