LIVE from the Camino Fuenterroble de Salvatierra to Zamora

[Chanbec]

On Sunday the weather was fantastic, sunny from early on, but we were lucky that Monday morning brought early mist. The bus to Guijuelo was very easy and getting a taxi the short ride to Fuenterroble de Salvatierra also proved easy.

We had low lying mist with us for the first few hours which made everything very atmospheric, especially the Roman mile markers appearing suddenly out of the gloom. The climb up the Pico de la Dueña proved pretty easy and we rested at the top with fabulous views in front of us.

Most of the rest of the way to San Pedro de Rozados ran parallel to a small road. I really appreciated being able to have such open views and to be able to see how far we had come.

We spent the night at the Hotel Rural VII Carreras and had such a wonderful welcome. Their menu del día is fantastic value at 10 euros and I had one of the best lamb chops I’ve had for a long time. It was good to meet a few other pilgrims too.

Today has been a relatively easy walk, partly because we were very lucky with the weather, cloud cover all the way until we reached Salamanca. Again I really appreciated the open fields and seeing the varied use of the landscape (the sunflower fields must be spectacular at the right time of year). Three hours after starting out we came across a wonderful spot where some kind people have placed two benches in the shade, the perfect spot to stop and eat and rest.

Salamanca is a wonderful city, the views from the cathedral are worth the climb, even with weary legs!

 

[Chanbec]

On Wednesday we left Salamanca at 8am, following a busy road on a clearly marked path. Soon, though, we were heading off onto tracks across wide open farmland, which we found fascinating. Whilst the sun came out early a cold wind was enough to make the walking really pleasant.

We stopped to rest at Calzada de Valdunciel before continuing on, this time much closer to the N360, however always on a separate track and with the road relatively quiet. We then reached the turnoff for the Real Castillo de Buen Amor and within half an hour reached this wonderful castle. This has been part of the reason we started with the section of the via de la plata, as we’d heard of the castle from a friend who had raved about it but who sadly passed away last year. We really enjoyed our stay, it is a special building with lovely staff.

We didn’t start today until nearly 10am as a result of waiting for breakfast, but fortunately the day started fairly cloudy. We reached Cubo de Vino in good time and stopped for a rest at Bar Hernandez - the region’s wine is clearly very good as even a 1 euro glass of wine tasted wonderful! It was good to turn away from the road back onto farm tracks in the afternoon, although the sun came out and the breeze dropped, which meant we were very glad to see the vineyards of Villanueva de Campean