Villafranca de los Barros -Almendralejo

21 kms- so very very windy!!

Storm Martinho has made itself felt. Fortunately most of today was dry but oh the wind.

The terrain was very open, flat farmland, grape vines, olive trees and that was about it. Nothing to stop the wind. Just as well we had walking poles to keep us grounded.

We walked through Villafranca this morning and managed to find a church open
- no stamp (sellos) so we are having to rely on the hotels to stamp our
Pilgrim credentials. Not even a bar along the route to collect one at, oh well, we know we can
collect more the higher up country we go.

The weather is hopefully
taking a turn for the better from Monday once this horrible storm system finally plays itself out.

Tomorrow we head for Merida, where we take a day off to do some laundry and check out all the Roman antiquities.

Our first week of walking hasn’t been too bad now that we are into the daily swing of things. Better weather will make such a difference. Hopefully the Camino will dry up underfoot a bit too, though to be honest today hasn’t been too bad mud wise!

Our hotel in Almendralejo is by the football stadium and there appears to be a week long under 17 tournament on. Lots of spotty, noisy youths about 😂😂

We had a very late lunch at the hotel, it was packed, the portions turned out to be huge so thankfully two of the dishes had salad elements - cuttlefish salad, avocado salad these were supposed to be starters but turned out huge, then fortunately we shared a beef rib with fries and roasted pepper. No room for dessert just coffee. We certainly are walking enough to cancel out the calories - right?Read more