San Pedro de Merída to Merída

We had a quick coffee at the bar which opened very early for the truckers and sales reps, and when we left we found the camino path, it was flat and easy walking. The first section was on an old road that was probably the main road to Merída before the multi-lane motorway was built, in fact they ran parallel to one another. After a slight ascent we were walking downhill all the way to the small town of Trujillanos, about 7km from San Pedro. Although it was a small town, it had a cafe/bar that was open, so we sat down in the shade for 30 minutes and enjoyed coffee and tostada

Just on the outskirts of the town we crossed a road junction and turned off the road onto a dirt path, it was reasonably wide and flat, we would stay on this path until we reached the outskirts of the city. I had to stop at one point and check my feet which were getting quite sore, but on the camino you can only go forward, so it was a brief stop and we carried on. Overall it had been a nice walk, and before we knew it we had arrived on the outskirts of the city of Merída as the dirt path suddenly came to an end and we stepped onto the tarmac. It was a long walk of several km to the albergue, but we were able to stop for coffee and replenish supplies for my first aid kit at a pharmacy. Although I had been to Merida twice before, it was the first time I had come in from this direction and so our walk was a bit more leisurely as we took in the sights. The city centre was crowded with pedestrians, it felt strange to be in a crowd having become accustomed to the solitude of the camino and small villages and towns.

I think we were the first to arrive in the albergue that day but that was good because we got first dibs on the showers, the washing machine and drying line. Apart from the washing machine which was a new addition, the albergue was exactly as I remembered it, unchanged as Bilbo would say. It is not the worst albergue I have ever stayed in but not the best either. Another new addition was two large floor standing fans, which we left switched on all night. The last time I stayed here the heat through the night was unbelievable.

Once we had done all our daily camino tasks, we went out for a drink at a very posh bar near the albergue. I had promised Ken an Italian dinner in a proper Italian restaurant for our last night together. We had spent four weeks and almost every day the menus had been the same, and I wanted to exorcise the memory of the terrible Italian dinner we had in Córdoba. The nearest proper Italian restaurant closed at 1630, so we went straight there and got a table right away. It looked like quite a posh place and was expensive by Spanish standards, but it was so worth it. The food was the best we had eaten on the camino thus far, I am so glad we did it.

We went back to the albergue, and no doubt Ken was thinking about his departure to Sevilla in the morning. He was getting an early bus to Sevilla, and planned to stay in the pilgrims albergue and the next day get a flight back to Northern Ireland. I spent some time going over my route plan for the Via de la Plata, I was not looking forward to the morning, but I was tired and sleep beckoned.もっと詳しく