Day 25 - Valverde de Valdelacasa - 19.1

What a beautiful day!
The morning began with the best coffee, toast, a bit of ham, and conversion with the couple who arrived on bikes later yesterday afternoon.
Both from the UK. They are biking from north to the south of Spain where he is catching a boat to South America and she ???? well might go too, or might go back to the UK to finish uni - a work in progress. He wants to bike the length of South American and has been planning that trip for a long time. I hope it all turns out for them both as they are a delightful pair.
I left about 8.15 am.
Today’s walk started down hill through shaded forested slopes and later along a babbling brook/ small river; then over a flat green plain surrounded by distant mountains; studded with oak trees and calm grazing cattle. The breeze murmured through the trees and the sun was broken up by regular shady sections. I stopped many times to just take in the stunning landscape.
Today was a lot more like the Camino Frances with small villages at regular intervals and green landscapes - but with far less people than the Francés. I only saw three other peregrinos today.
The whole day the Camino followed an old Roman road with ancient road markers at regular intervals.
There was a small town at the 10 km mark so I had an early lunch as I didn’t eat much yesterday(the best salada mixta ever!!) and arrived at my final destination at 2.30 pm.
The two villages are very old and small, and I imagine rely on the Camino for some of their income.
I wanted to stop at both for the night but really had to choose one. Otherwise this Camino will be too long even for me.
An early dinner of the best soup and ‘mixed platter’ of salad, chicken, egg and chips. Delicious.
Just waiting for my washing to finish- they have a machine - and then relaxation for the rest of the afternoon/ evening. Tomorrow is a short walk of around 10 km to a well known Monastery that hosts pilgrims. I’m really looking forward to staying there.
Buen CaminoLæs mere