21 km
Ascent: 1843 feet or 562 m
Descent: 908 feet or 277 m
Total: 2751 feet or 839 m
2 days without internet adequate for uploading pics so there will be a few posts one after the other….
It was a good walking day today. We started before it was light, somewhere around 7:21 am. It was dark and the ground a bit uneven but we were happy to be on our way. It was a good stay at Hostal Molino. We had breakfast there, tosta and coffee. Haven’t seen Young-Suk or Augustine for the past few nights….we’ve stayed in private hostals and I think they have been in municipal albergues.
On the way out of town we came across another sign similar to the one we’d seen in the previous town but because it was so dark still, the photo didn’t turn out so well. Just as the sun was rising, we passed by the El Real castle. Crossed a stream into Extremadura.
Not too much to highlight today other than that the weather was cool enough for us don scarves and wind jackets. We like the weather cooler. We found ourselves walking a lot faster and knocked off the kilometres quickly, finding ourselves at more or less the halfway point at the Leo Hotel, a Spanish version of our travel plazas in the USA. Stopped for lunch there….potato tortilla and a croissant and fresh pressed orange juice. Continued on. The way led us between the dual carriageway routes and was nice. We could hear the traffic but it wasn’t bad.
Tonight we are staying at the Albergue Paroquial de Monesterio in Monesterio. It’s like staying at home…so comfortable with, tonight, very few peregrinos. We met Stuart from Scotland. Earlier we met Sylvia and Marie from France on our way here. We’d stopped for a rest under a tree and they stopped for a picnic opposite us on the other side of the road…waved to each other and Sylvia came over to introduce herself. Thought we might see them at the hostel tonight but they must be staying at a different place because we haven’t seen them again.
We went out for dinner and a drink to a local bar, Bar Cono. We were watching the waiter serve an unusual looking dish. He’d grabbed a jar from the shelf beside me so I was able to have a look to see what it was….”Arrope de Calabaza” which translated into “Pumpkin rubber.” LOL LOL. He saw our interest and brought us a sample. Jellied pumpkin in honey with aniseed. Very different and very sweet. We love trying different, unusual foods and this was one.
ENIGMAS 