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The Silleda monopoly

Stairs and octopus It’s been a few days and we have travelled more kilometres. Tonight, we find ourselves in Silleda with just 41 km to go to get to Santiago. However let’s recap these days. When we left Ourense after a full day off we knew we had a 500 metre climb out of the valley on the N525 highway. The off-road track was going to be too steep so we elected for the road. It was uphill straight away....

Road trip to Ourense

When the hills are too big !   Off to Ourense at a 120 Km/h. Yes, that seems a tad fast even for e-bikes and even though they are with us we obviously aren’t sitting on them. Time and some big hills have forced us to skip ahead 130 km to meet our 7th June timetable to have the bikes back. We came across and add for a company that moves bikes at an albergue about 10 days ago and...

Salamanca

It’s heaps old !   We arrived at Salamanca mid-morning via the ancient Roman bridge. We could actually see the enormous steeple of the main cathedral from about 15km out. Posing for photos first we hung around on the other side of the river taking in the rising stone walls and building I. Front of us. Crossing the river on its cobble stone surface tested every joint, nut and bolt on my bike and body. On the other side sitting...

A 5 star pilgrim meal

Cooking with passion Tonight we ate a sensational pilgrim meal at Restaurante Me Gusta Comer. However, let this story start from the beginning. We arrived at the town of Rionegro del Puente or better known as the bridge over the black river. The reviews of the albergue was promising and the restaurant across the road even better. With the door to the albergue open we went in and made ourselves at home.  Hola, hola, hola …….. no response, oh well...

A few quirky albergues

Fuentrroble to Morille to Salamanca It’s been a few days since I posted our travels. In that time we stayed at a quirky albergue called the Santa Maria Parroquial. These are albergues that are Christian based and looked after by volunteers of faith. Generally spartan they still have a fun feel about them. This place was somewhat of a museum with more antiques of varying value then could be taken in. We were asked our reason for walking to Santiago....

A tepid Roman bath

Banos De Montemayor Yesterday we stayed at Banos de Montemayor. We actually put our schedule behind a day so we could get here for a full day at this spa town. I suppose the best way to sum it up was too much red tape and not enough water. We approached the town from the rail trail above and had to lose valuable altitude into the valley below to access the town. Our albergue was at the top of the...

Rail trail

Plasencia to Aldeanueva Del Camino Today we left the Camino Ruta de la Plata and travelled along a Via Verde,  verde being the Spanish word for green. Just like in Australia, Spain has closed down thousands of kilometres of unprofitable little used railway lines. Unlike Australia they have poured in tens of millions of dollars to turn them into thousands of kilometres of rail trails. This particular one is the old line between Plasencia  to Salamanca.and ran from 1896 to...

Caceres

Winter is coming Today was a rest day in Caceres. It’s taken my whole time here just to learn how to spell it. It’s a town that dates back to Bronze Age inhabitants however better known for its Roman, Muslim then Christian occupation over last 2000 + years. So well preserved is the old city that UNESCO has placed it on its list of historical towns and the movie industry has exploited its authenticity to film. Best known as a...

A Roman city to behold

Merida The previous evening we caught the train from Zafra. As the train would only allow 3 bikes at a time it was necessary to get 2 trains. Pen, Sheryl and Grace took the mid-afternoon train while Greg, Kym and me the evening train. It was always the plan to make up time here and there by cutting out a few days to give us more days in the iconic towns. Merida is one of those towns. Getting in late,...

All booked out

Monesterio to Zafra From Monesterio we initially were going to ride to Fuente de Cantos , a distance of about 24 km.not far really! However due to this festival come public holiday there was no accommodation between Monesterio and  Zafra Decision made it will be 46 km to Zafra . I feel a little embarrassed to say that with hardcore bike people reading this. If we didn’t have e-bikes we could ride as far as we like. With e-bikes however...

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