A Day in Zamora – a Cathedral and a Castle

Camino Via de la Plata, Flashpacking, Spain, Travel,

May 19 – We slept in this morning and caught up on the news.  Can’t believe what’s going on back home.  Time for some sightseeing!  

Zamora’s cathedral, Santa Iglesia Catedral de Zamora, is Romanesque – sort of square and blocky – with a museum inside.

Pretty Madonnas:

Pretty Mary with a very odd looking baby Jesus and his cousin John:

Another odd baby:

Speaking of odd, this is Jesus receiving comfort from an angel while he prays in Gethsemane:

I’m forming a hypothesis that just because it is in a museum, it is not necessarily great art!  Beauty is in the eye…

Images of St. James:

There is a huge fresco of St. Christopher that is the first thing you see when you enter the sanctuary.  Lookng at St. Christopher was thought to guarantee you would not die today.  You’re welcome!

Next door to the cathedral is an old castle / fort that looks over the Rio Duero.

From the ramparts, you can see over the city:

 A good view of the storks in the bell tower:

We enjoyed a menu del dia of lentil stew with spicy sausage, and a roast chicken leg, with nata (custard with cinnamon) for dessert.  A poor man walked among the tables, trying to sell little packets of tissue for spare change.  The lady at the next table called the waitress over, handed her 10 euro and told her to serve the beggar a meal.  Nice person of Spain!  We encounter so many poor people here.  What do you do when a beggar approaches you?

After our meal, we wandered back to our room for siesta.  The busy bustling shopping streets are empty and pin-drop quiet at three in the afternoon, as all the stores are closed.  

Back on the road in the morning!

El Cubo to Villanueva de Campeán to Zamora

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May 17 – Meanwhile, back at the alburgue, some good news.  In our roomful of Frenchpersons, Jim was the only one that snored.  They were up at the crack of 6, shining flashlights at one another and making as much noise as possible.  Sigh.  I’m just not an alburgue person.  Luckily, I had gotten up at 5 to take a pre-emptive pee, so I just closed my eyes and waited for them to clear out.  

Rainy morning, but just drizzle. Eight miles to get to Villanueva de Campeán.  Leaving El Cubo:


Interesting sunrise:

About two miles into the walk, I realized that I was not wearing my little neckerchief. Alburgues! Best place to lose your stuff! I know right where I left it, hanging on the bunk bed, but the quilt must have covered it, and I didn’t see it this morning. It’s my job to check the room to make sure we leave nothing behind, so I have no one to blame but moi. Oh well. 😔 

All farm trail today, featuring different crops:

This one looks very Zen:

A whole lot of dirt.  Wonder what will be planted here?

Pretty view from the top of the hill:


Before long, we reached our tiny town.  

Thankfully, there is a Casa Rural here, so we don’t have to spend two nights in a row in an alburgue.  The Casa is lovely, with a comfy bed and lots of pillows, and I figured out how to work the espresso machine, so at least we’ll have coffee for breakfast.  At 2pm we found the only bar in town and got the menu del dia – very generic noodle soup, pork filet and French fries, which we ate while watching a Spanish-dubbed episode of The Simpsons.  We asked directions to the grocery and were told this town has no grocery and no shops at all!  Just alburgues and this bar, said the barmaid.  I wondered where folks buy food here?  She just smiled and shook her head.  Must be a secret.

276 miles to go.

May 18 – 12 miles planned for today, which will get us into the city of Zamora.  We each had three cups of espresso at our DIY breakfast, so we’ll probably make it in record time!  It is supposed to rain this morning, and it is really cold – in the low 40s – so we are wearing all our layers of clothes.  All farm track again today. Pretty clouds.

It didn’t rain on us, but the clouds were ominous at times:

We found the very marker that is pictured on the front of our guidebook:

And some thoughtful person left a chair so hikers could stop and rest!

We could see Zamora in the distance, even when we were still eight miles away.  We sang “How are things in Glock-Zamora”, and remembered what God had against Sodom, but why didn’t He like Zamora?  We saw a sign for Za❤️ (amore).

By noon we reached the Rio Duero (same river as in Salamanca) and crossed the footbridge.

Doesn’t this look like a blanket?  It’s graffiti painted on the bridge.

Zamora has 24 churches and a castle. Tomorrow we’ll see what there is to see.

264 miles to go.

Salamanca to Calzada de Valdunciel to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino

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May 15 – Today marks the halfway point of our stay in Spain, and we are roughly halfway through our Camino, so we are on track to reach Santiago on time.  Our guidebook warned us that there were no yellow arrows or Camino markers to guide us out of Salamanca, so this morning we just walked north.  Nine miles planned for today.

We left the city and walked along the good old N630 with traffic whizzing by until the path took us off onto a farm road that paralleled the highway.  Much nicer walking on dirt, especially with wild flowers growing on either side.  We saw three other hikers in the morning, plus several bikers.

The farm track was pretty featureless.  You can tell that we’re bored when we start taking pictures of each other!

Jim has been watching big black ants scurry across our path, doing whatever it is that ants do.  Today seemed like a good day to stop and take a video of their activity.  I’m sure the video will show up on his blog at beinghersite.wordpress.com

The little village of Calzada looks dusty and worn.  The town square is just that – an empty square.  We are staying in a tiny room above the bar.  They did a surprisingly good menu del dia, with paella and a nice thick hake steak.  298 miles to go.

May 16 –  We went down to the bar this morning looking for coffee, but it was locked up tight.  We know there are no other towns between here and tonight’s destination.  I guess we’re going to learn what a hike without coffee feels like!  

13 miles today to get to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino. Wonder how a town gets a name like Cube of Wine? We had some farm walking in the early morning, til the sign indicated we should go back to the highway.  

Luckily, there was only a little road walking – most of the way was a dirt track next to the highway.  By 11am, I was sure missing my morning coffee.  The sun was beating down and there was not a tree in sight, so wet put up our sun umbrellas.  So glad we have them!

The tiny town of El Cubo is supposed to have two alburgues.  We walked past the first one, as the reviews said the second was better.  When we got to the F and M alburgue, the lady said she did not have our email requesting a reservation, but she could give us two bunk beds in a dorm.  That was the first bad news.  We said we’d walk back to the other alburgue and try there, but she said it was closed for non-payment of taxes (or something to that effect).  Not really sure if this was true.  Then she informed us that one of the two bathrooms was out of order.  That was the second bad news.  This was supposed to be an 8 bed alburgue: we counted 16 beds.  Person to bathroom ratio – not good.

We went to the bar down the street and got a pretty good menu del dia.  A German woman was trying to order something vegetarian.  No meat, she told the waiter.  Okay, fish, he replied.  No fish either, said the lady.  He went down his list of entrees: meat, meat, meat, fish fish, fish.  No other options.  Jim suggested she ask for fried eggs, if that would be acceptable.  She agreed that it was probably the best she could do.  Jim saves the day!

After our meal, we walked down the street and sat on a park bench.  It was full of sticky, tarry stuff that got all over our pants and our hands.  That was the third bad news.  We went back to the alburgue to do laundry and try and wash the tar out.  You know that didn’t work.  I’m going to stop writing now, before anything else happens.

285 miles to go.

Another Day in Salamanca 

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May 14 – Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom and to all mothers, grandmothers, mothers-in-law, stepmoms, godmoms, aunts, teachers, nurses, and anyone who has ever loved a child.❤️❤️❤️

Here’s another Salamanca story.  This city hosts the largest number of University students in Spain.  When a newbie comes to Salamanca for their first year, they are told that they must find the frog on the skull, or they will not pass their exams.  Like any freshman challenge, upperclassmen will not help them find the frog.  It took us a while, but we found it – the crowd of gaping, pointing tourists may have helped.  Can you see it above the door of the university?

How about now?

See it?  Good!  You will pass your exams!

We walked south this morning to see the old Roman Bridge.  It’s very quiet on Sunday morning, but we see policemen and military vehicles lining the roadway.  What’s up?  I’m wondering if there’s some sort of news event about to happen, when a policeman on a bicycle rides by, shouting the Spanish equivalent of, “Move over!  Out of the way!”  And then came:

Marathon runners!  Hundreds of them! After a few dozen came a man on a bike with a sign that read 1st Mujer (Woman).  Soon came the 2nd:

Do they announce the women in US races too?  The 3rd Mujer also got a sign, but the rest just ran with the pack. It was a beautiful morning for the race – dry and cool.  We walked against the tide to admire the Roman Bridge, which held up well under a thousand pounding feet.

After the race passed by, we admired the reflection of the Cathedrals in the Rio Duero.

…and admired the river itself.

We strolled down to the Convento de San Esteban:

…where St. Stephen is eternally stoned:

…and stoned again:

Interesting stone mosaic floors:

The cloisters around the courtyard:

The worship space is huge:

…with 118 seats for the choir:

…and my favorite part, the misericordia, or mercy seats, that give the choir members a place to rest their butts while appearing to be standing:

Back at the Plaza Mayor, the book sale was still going on:

…while the tourists drank coffee

…and an orchestra entertained the crowds:

There is one more thing you have to look for in the stonework of Salamanca.  A little rabbit – rub it for good luck!

Tomorrow we are back on the road.  308 miles to go.

A Day in Salamanca 

Camino Via de la Plata, Flashpacking, Spain, Travel, , , ,

May 13 – No rain today!  After our yogurt and strawberries breakfast, we set out for the old city to see the sights.  It’s still cold, and we are wearing all our layers of clothes.

Salamanca has two cathedrals side by side – the Catedral Vieja (old) built in the twelfth century, and the Catedral Nueva built in the 1500 – 1700s (not really all that new).  They are connected inside.  Here is a funny story.  The Cathedrals sustained a lot of earthquake damage, and were being repaired in the 1990s.  A stone mason got permission to add some modern touches to the decorations surrounding the door. 

So now crowds huddle around the big red door, looking for the astronaut:

…and the gargoyle eating an ice cream cone:

The astronaut has spawned all manner of internet fake news about ancient aliens visiting Spain in the Middle Ages – there is even an entry about it on Snopes.com.

We toured the new Cathedral first.  Why is it that sculptors have no trouble with Mary, but have such a hard time with Jesus?

This is the crucifix believed to belong to El Cid:

The Golden Chapel, containing a famous image of Death:

And some frescoes that were discovered when the walls were being cleaned:

In the Old Cathedral, there is a famous painting of Jesus separating the good from the wicked on Judgement Day (evidently the wicked don’t get to keep their clothes), atop a huge golden altarpiece showing 53 scenes of the life of Christ:

Lots of the rich and famous are buried in the cathedral.  I like the image of dying with a book in my hands.

Famous statue of the Virgin Mary of the See – she is curvy and natural, while little Jesus is stilted and stiff:

…and the Virgin of the Milk:

This is the Adoration of the Magi – I am amused by the expression on the baby Jesus face (Myrrh?  Really?):

Then we climbed the Ieronimus Tower for a view of the city:

To be continued…

Baños de Montemayor to….. Salamanca!

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May 11 – So, last night as we were planning our way forward, I noted that we had three more days of rain ahead of us, and two more days of highway walking (blech and double blech).  The third day was looking like an 18 miler with no place to stop midway.  The 18 mile day was off-road, which made getting a ride or taxi a challenge. What are the chances of finding another lady with a 4×4? All of which made me start looking at bus schedules.  It turns out that the town we are in right now is the very last town with a bus station before we reach the city of Salamanca (4 or 5 walking days away).  The bus station is two minutes from our hostal.  The bus runs twice a day.  We went to sleep on the possibility.

This morning we looked out the window at the gray skies and puddles, and dear sweet Jim said, “Let’s go to Salamanca!”  He booked our bus tickets online and found us a hostal near the Old City.  At 9:45 we were on the bus, looking at all the blue Camino signs rolling by along the highway.  By 11:15 we were in Salamanca.  10 minutes later we were at Hostal Granada, run by a very personable young man with good English.  Our room is lovely.  There is a real supermarket down the block.  My feet are happy, and so is the rest of me.  Time for some R and R.

We did a brief walkabout of the old city.  This is a University city, full of young people and bookstores.  It is the most important university in Spain, attracting thousands of international students.  Most of the buildings are brown.

The Plaza Mayor, the huge main square, was hosting a book sale, so there were bookstalls set up all around.  For some reason, there is a huge statue of an upside down elephant here.  Wait til I tell Emma – she loves elephants!

We saw the Casa de los Conches, decorated with Camino shells.  It is used as a library, and has a shell lamp inside.

We didn’t stay out long in the rain.

May 12 – Jim has been struggling for a while with a boot that is coming apart.  He superglued it as a temporary fix, but he needs new boots.  We tried to get him a pair in Cáceres, but the big sporting goods store there only stocked up to size 46, and he is a 48 or 49 depending on the brand (US size 13, wide).  There is a big store here in Salamanca called Decathalon.  It’s about a 2.5 mile walk from our hostal. It’s not raining too hard, so we set out to find it.  We crossed a river.

It was indeed a huge store, and they had exactly one pair of boots in size 48.  Jim said they felt a little narrow, but felt he had no options at this point, so he bought them.  On the way home we passed the University of Happiness.

It’s still cold and rainy, so after our menu del dia we went back to our hotel to chill.  Sightseeing tomorrow! 

Oliva de Plesencia to Jarilla to Baños de Montemayor

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May 9 –  It’s so nice to have a kitchen when you have Jim to cook you breakfast!  We took advantage of our casa rural – we were the only guests – by taking over the kitchen for all our meals.  We didn’t really have a choice – there was no restaurant in town to feed us.  This Casa Rural cornered the market by also owning the only grocery in town – we had to buy our food from them to cook in their kitchen.  I thought I did a good enough job cleaning up and doing the dishes after each meal, but the Mamasita of the owner snuck in behind me and refolded the dish towels when we weren’t looking.

 Today we continue our roadwalk north to the Hostal Asturias, which is a highway truck stop about a mile from the town of Jarilla, and a seven mile walk for us.  Early morning pastoral scene:

Daily stork and babies shot.  See the two little puffballs?  I really love my new camera, Canon SX710 HS.  My old Canon was great, but this one zooms like crazy (30x) and captures good shots in any light.  Way to go, Canon!

Jim said he’d buy us this house on the hill.  What do you think?  All the olives you could ever want!

We got to the hostal by noon, did our laundry, rested our feet, then had a fine midday meal at the restaurant downstairs with ice cream for dessert.  The dessert choices are always flan, custard or ice cream.  If you ask for ice cream, you get a cone or a pop or whatever they have in the freezer.  No flavor choices either.

 I watched Spanish Wheel of Fortune on tv, and was able to hold my own against the other contestants!  375 miles to go.

May 10 – Today is a fourteen mile day that will complete our detour and get us back on the actual Camino.  Rain is in the forecast for the next three days.  Our truck stop bar offered us coffee and cookies for breakfast, so that’s what we had.  Couldn’t help noticing that the truck drivers who were there for coffee all added a shot or a chaser to their order at 7am.  One of them was an ambulance driver!

The rain held off while we walked along the service road of the super highway for about five miles.  

Our map showed that after five miles we could rejoin the Camino.  The joke was on us – the Camino WAS the highway for the rest of the day!  The rain held off until about 10am, so we got some miles in.  The sun was shining over yonder, but not on us!

The sun came out at noon and the sky looked ethereal as the sun burned off the clouds.  Note the Camino sign at the left, warning vehicles not to hit us as we walk.  Instead of the signs, they might have given us a pedestrian path!

I pretended the white line on the side of the road was softer than the asphalt.  My feet didn’t buy it.

Eventually we reached our town of Baños de Montemayor.  They have a church here, and two stores that sell baskets.

Baskets shaped like shoes?

This town mustn’t have any real Roman mile markers, so it has put up replicas.  I don’t think the Roman ones had Arabic writing.  According to this one, we have 569 km, or 354 miles left in our journey.  Unfortunately, this number doesn’t agree with my book.  I wonder which one is right?  Baños is our last town in the region of Extremadura and the province of Cáceres.  Tomorrow we will walk into the region of Castilla y Léon and the province of Salamanca.


361 miles to go.

Galisteo to Carcaboso to Oliva de Plesencia

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May 7 – Happy birthday to my sister Amy, and Happy Primavera to all!  Yes, today is another fiesta day here in Spain – Primavera, or the first day of Spring (according to another hiker – this may not be correct).  Not sure what this holiday entails, except rose petals and lots of drinking.  

Leaving Galisteo, we bade farewell to the town storks (see the two babies in the nest?), and crossed over an old bridge.

Once we were out of town, all the trail arrows were obliterated.  We thought the trail might have been moved, which happens from time to time, but we could find no alternative route in any of our resources.  So, today’s walk of 7 miles was totally on asphalt, following Google Maps, which thinks you are a car and directs you down a paved road.  Roadwalks are not my favorite – after walking any distance on pavement, a dirt path feels as soft as walking on pillows.  I don’t know how marathoners run for 26 miles, all on pavement.  Hats off to them!

We got to see some cacti in bloom:

There was a little town at the halfway point of our day, with a coffee shop, so we stopped in for a cup.  Spoke for a while with a fellow hiker from Australia of about our age, also doing short stages.  He lamented how the Camino Frances has been ruined by the youngsters who turned it into a partying experience, and theorized that is why all the oldsters are on this trail.  He confirmed our observation that this is no longer the least popular Camino – we are seeing larger numbers of walkers every day, and are having to book in advance to assure we have a room for the night.

We got to Carcaboso by noon.

Our hostal was rocking with folks celebrating Primavera, but we managed to get a room and a good meal.  

This quartet wasn’t rocking out for the kids, but with accordion and saxophone, they strode proudly down the street, playing all their songs by heart.

We checked out the church of Santiago Apostol, which was closed but had a collection of old Roman markers on display.  The flowers on the cross are also for Primavera, I think.

Now, I do my best to both educate and amuse my audience, so I would like to share the wedding traditions of Carcabos, which must be very important to merit a sign outside the church.  I would like to, but whoever translated this sign into English did not help my understanding – what do you think?

This is our second day with no wifi.  Hope we have some soon!  392 miles to go.

May 8 – After a breakfast of churros and coffee, we hit the road for a twelve mile walk.  Others are doing a 24 mile day to the next town that is right on the Camino, but we are detouring to a town halfway between.  The upside of this is a shorter walking day; the downside is that the last four miles walked do not count toward our Camino total.  Oh well.  Pretty sky this morning.

We met an Englishman named Tim, who was actually walking as slow as we were, due to a leg injury.  It turned out that both he and Jim were engineers who then got doctorates in sociology.  As you can imagine, they had lots to discuss.

I straggled behind, taking pictures.

This scene reminded me of Africa.  I expected to see a giraffe at any moment.

We bade farewell to Tim after 8 miles as we started our detour.  Even with his injury, he plans to walk 24 miles today.

The last four miles was along a busy highway, where we had to walk on the rocky verge in the hot sun.  No fun!  But now we are in a lovely Casa Rural, Jim has cooked us a delicious lunch, and I am looking forward to my siesta.  384 miles to go.

Riolobos to Galisteo

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May 6 – We stopped in the Riolobos plaza to say good morning to the storks before heading out of town.  I love how dozens of smaller birds make their nests inside the tall stork nests.  Always such a flurry of activity and birdsong in the morning.

Today we are walking to Galisteo, seven miles north. Most hikers pass this town by without stopping, but we are going to spend the day.  We walk over an old footbridge.

…and admire some pretty flowers or weeds, depending on your perspective, growing by the side of the road.

We pass a solar energy farm, just drinking up those rays.  Southern Spain is the perfect place for solar power.

Galisteo doesn’t show up in our online resources, but local tourists come here to spend a day in the old walled city.  The wall was built by the Muslims, of course.  They really liked walls.  The houses now exceed the confines of the walls, so there is an inner city and an outer city.

We climbed to the top of the wall and walked all around the city.

Our guidebook raved about the food at our bar/hostal and they were so right.  Purple cabbage and shrimp was unbelievably good. Best meal we’ve had in a month!
399 miles to go.

Cañaveral to Riolobos

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May 5 – Twelve miles planned for today and rain in the forecast.  We had our coffee and toast with ham and cheese breakfast at the hostal, and were on the road by 7:15.  We climbed a mighty big hill as the sun came up.

At the top  of the hill was a shady wooded walk.  We haven’t had too many of those in Spain.  Very nice.

Then the rain started, first just a drizzle, then it poured down.

Mist on the hills:

The sky cleared by noon, then got breathtakingly beautiful.



While we were admiring the clouds, we missed the turnoff to Riolobos.  We are so used to following yellow arrows that we didn’t realize this road would not be marked.  We saw the town get closer, then get farther away!  By the time we were sure we had made a mistake, we’d walked an extra two miles, then had to reverse course and retrace our steps to the turnoff.

16 miles walked today.  An extra four miles, and I don’t get to subtract them from my total.  Drat.  And now my feet are sore.

407 miles to go.