Calzadilla de la Cueza

We left our beautiful San Zoilo hotel a little after 9 this morning. Breakfast was at 8, but we knew the weather was unreliable and could get bad later, and it was only about 16 kms. And we knew that tonight would not be as fancy as last night. And I must mention dinner last night, fashionably at 8.30, even the half pension menu was great and it was rather fine dining. Amr, Rachel and I had grilled vegetables for our entrée, and it was a beautifully arranged plate of so many veges - artichoke, peas, beans, eggplant, leek, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts and even bok choy! served with a romesco type sauce, just delicious and a full meal in itself as is often the case in Spain, pilgrim menus anyway….then you have some form of meat and potatoes…

So today’s walk was maybe the least spectacular of the meseta, and if walked not in spring, or in bad weather, may cause people to blacklist this section, as it was basically flat and straight, with just a little undulation at the end when you thankfully come across this village hiding just under the horizon. But we had a good walk, and of course it is now green and beautiful, with quite a lot of yellow fields of rapeseed or some mustard crop, and ploughed fields waiting for what I think will be sunflowers, as we saw them before here. There were many moments of beauty.

One excitement for me was that I discovered my new phone, which I use as a camera and on wifi but has no SIM, can use the app I had downloaded for identifying plants…I had assumed it needed some internet connection, but just decided to try instead of asking Amr or Rachel, and it worked…it is all downloaded!! This was such fun for me, and I trailed along testing plants and flowers. There are so many wild flowers along all the edges - came across some poison hemlock which was the most interesting find of the day.

Another funny thing happened when we were having a break at one point - there are benches and picnic tables dotted around here and there, and even once a coffee truck sort of set up - there was a woman with a hat like Amr’s!! She said she’d bought it in Australia, but admitted she didn’t know where it was made..! So it’s not as unique as we thought, even though we bought it in a small French village and it is made in Nepal. But Amr wearing it is unique!

We arrived here at 2 pm and were happy that we had beaten any really bad weather. It was cool but not freezing, though it was very windy which was hard to walk through. But maybe the wind helped keep the rain at bay because we had odd spots of raindrops occasionally, but nothing that required ponchos (though some pessimists put them on and had them flapping madly in the wind). Checked into our basic but more than adequate rooms, had a drink, and people were arriving wind blown and drenched poor things….we were so happy to be warm and cosy by then. They had walked further, from the town where yesterday’s lovely church was. Dinner here at 7.30, all good.Read more