Hi to all my forum friends.
I have now been walking for six days and today am in Zafra. It's a wonderful walk, but I have been surprised by the numbers of people. The albergues are very full, usually there are some who have to go to hostales or pensiones who had hoped to stay in the albergue. But the weather has been great, the scenery also. I am watching someone else's ipod recharge on the computer here in Zafra's public library, so I have a few minutes to give some random observations.
Day 1 -- Sevilla to Guillena. A visit to the Roman ruins at Italica is definitely worth a stop, I remember that it's Trajan's birthplace, but there are two other Roman emperors who were born there as well. Entry is free with an EU passport, but the 1.5 E charge is very reasonable. I spent an hour and a half there, met my first pilgrims in the amphitheater, and was able to make it to Guillena in early afternoon. Sevilla to Italica is all road walking, but after that, there are many kms of nice agricultural tracks and lots of activity going on -- picking asparagus, working in the fields, etc. The albergue in Guillena now has a room with ten beds (5 bunks) and a couple of showers and toilets. They are building an albergue on top of the bar next to the albergue. Food at the Portugal is very good.
Day 2 -- Guillena to Castilblanco. Wow, walking through lots of fincas/cortijos or whatever you call these big grazing estates. I was 3 feet from a bull (not a cow with horns but a real bull whose anatomy was pointed out to me so I would believe it). Only about 4 km of road walking at the end, it was a very nice walk. The albergue has about 20 beds and was full very early in the day. There's a guy who lives in the single house behind the albergue who apparently comes every afternoon to pick the Euro bills out of the strong box, so I would recommend not putting money there but waiting till the hospitalera comes in the evening. There was a big to-do when I was there because the everyday thief hooked up with a pilgrim thief and they were caught in flagrante. The cops came, took the pilgrim away somewhere and life went on.
Day 3 -- Castilblanco to Almaden de la Plata. A long 30 km day, but after the first 16 on the side of the road, it's really heaven. This was a walk through what is now a nature preserve, it was just great. The albergue in Almaden is big, has room for more than 60 I think, so we didn't fill it up. Not too much going on there, though.
Day 4 -- Almaden to Monesterio. This was a slog, a 35 km day that was just too long. The problem is that you have to choose, either 16 km to Real de la Jara, or 35 to Monesterio. Since I arrived in Real de la Jara, had a long coffee break and then looked at my watch to see it was only 11 am, I decided to continue. The weather cooperated, luckily, cloudy the whole way, and cool temperatures. But in the hot sun this would be a killer. The route from Real de la Jara was recently taken off road, I was told, and it was very pleasant -- all through farms (I felt like Old MacDonald since I saw every farm animal imaginable) and stone walled growing areas. It was really nice. Monesterio, the "ham capital of Spain" (or is it the ham capital of the world?) is kind of a, well, dump. No albergue, so the several creepy hostales get all the business. Some appear to be better than others. Those who stayed in teh pension del Pilar were quite happy, those in the Hotel Moya less so, and those (including me) in the Hostal Extremadura thought it was awful. There is a new hotel on the edge of town, leaving, a two star Hotel Leo, which was probably not too expensive. My single room in the Extremadura had hot water (others' didn't) and sheets that looked like they were probably clean, but hey it was only 12 E.
I'm going to send this since it's getting long and I don't want to lose it. More to come, Laurie
I have now been walking for six days and today am in Zafra. It's a wonderful walk, but I have been surprised by the numbers of people. The albergues are very full, usually there are some who have to go to hostales or pensiones who had hoped to stay in the albergue. But the weather has been great, the scenery also. I am watching someone else's ipod recharge on the computer here in Zafra's public library, so I have a few minutes to give some random observations.
Day 1 -- Sevilla to Guillena. A visit to the Roman ruins at Italica is definitely worth a stop, I remember that it's Trajan's birthplace, but there are two other Roman emperors who were born there as well. Entry is free with an EU passport, but the 1.5 E charge is very reasonable. I spent an hour and a half there, met my first pilgrims in the amphitheater, and was able to make it to Guillena in early afternoon. Sevilla to Italica is all road walking, but after that, there are many kms of nice agricultural tracks and lots of activity going on -- picking asparagus, working in the fields, etc. The albergue in Guillena now has a room with ten beds (5 bunks) and a couple of showers and toilets. They are building an albergue on top of the bar next to the albergue. Food at the Portugal is very good.
Day 2 -- Guillena to Castilblanco. Wow, walking through lots of fincas/cortijos or whatever you call these big grazing estates. I was 3 feet from a bull (not a cow with horns but a real bull whose anatomy was pointed out to me so I would believe it). Only about 4 km of road walking at the end, it was a very nice walk. The albergue has about 20 beds and was full very early in the day. There's a guy who lives in the single house behind the albergue who apparently comes every afternoon to pick the Euro bills out of the strong box, so I would recommend not putting money there but waiting till the hospitalera comes in the evening. There was a big to-do when I was there because the everyday thief hooked up with a pilgrim thief and they were caught in flagrante. The cops came, took the pilgrim away somewhere and life went on.
Day 3 -- Castilblanco to Almaden de la Plata. A long 30 km day, but after the first 16 on the side of the road, it's really heaven. This was a walk through what is now a nature preserve, it was just great. The albergue in Almaden is big, has room for more than 60 I think, so we didn't fill it up. Not too much going on there, though.
Day 4 -- Almaden to Monesterio. This was a slog, a 35 km day that was just too long. The problem is that you have to choose, either 16 km to Real de la Jara, or 35 to Monesterio. Since I arrived in Real de la Jara, had a long coffee break and then looked at my watch to see it was only 11 am, I decided to continue. The weather cooperated, luckily, cloudy the whole way, and cool temperatures. But in the hot sun this would be a killer. The route from Real de la Jara was recently taken off road, I was told, and it was very pleasant -- all through farms (I felt like Old MacDonald since I saw every farm animal imaginable) and stone walled growing areas. It was really nice. Monesterio, the "ham capital of Spain" (or is it the ham capital of the world?) is kind of a, well, dump. No albergue, so the several creepy hostales get all the business. Some appear to be better than others. Those who stayed in teh pension del Pilar were quite happy, those in the Hotel Moya less so, and those (including me) in the Hostal Extremadura thought it was awful. There is a new hotel on the edge of town, leaving, a two star Hotel Leo, which was probably not too expensive. My single room in the Extremadura had hot water (others' didn't) and sheets that looked like they were probably clean, but hey it was only 12 E.
I'm going to send this since it's getting long and I don't want to lose it. More to come, Laurie
