Day 14 – Granon to Villafranca Montes de Oca
31k – 251k to date
Today was a great day for hiking, for people watching and for scenic agricultural vistas. Also, it was a loud day, why loud, because a lot of the trail paralleled a major highway with tons of trucks. There were several crossings of that highway and it is amazing more people don’t get run over. Just try to cross a highway fast when your feet and legs are tired and sore. Everyone looked like ducks trying to waddle across as fast as they could.
The land is still changing from fertile farms to mostly wheat fields today. You can tell it is a much more arid climate we are marching into. I saw the first mission style Catholic Church today. It is what you think all of Spain should have, but most are medieval or Roman style architecture. I also finally went through one town today that did not have a Church as it’s city center. The views from this hill country are not as stunning as coming off the mountains a few days ago, but it is still worth the look.
We passed by some “hermit” caves today. Tonight at dinner, there was a general discussion on how one might become a hermit and when one hermit dies, how does the cave pass to the next hermit. As one also asked, there were three hermit caves or condos on on mountain face, how do you be a hermit with neighbors so close. Plus, how do hermits make bread or do they come to town to buy it. Hermit life leads to lots of questions. As you can see, given a days walk and a couple of glasses of wine, dinner conversations lead almost anywhere.
Tonight I was grabbed for dinner by Aaron from Austin and he introduced me to Tim and Anesthresia from upstate Illinois. They were an interesting couple, both just married on a second marriage and both retired at an early age. Tim reminded me of a stereotypical flower child, probably a trust fund baby as they had been traveling since May, except when he asked if we minded if he blessed the food. He is definitely one you cannot judge a book by it’s cover. We had a great visit and a very good meal.
Meals are generally good, however, they can be hit and miss. for 10 euros, we are fed a first course of salad, soup or pasta. Then a second course of a meat and potatoes, usually french fries. Then it is all followed up by a dessert of ice cream or fruit. A wine, water and bread is also severed with the meal. if you want something else, most places will have a regular menu to order from, but the pilgrim meal has been generally good and and a good value. Everyone is excited when the salads are good and word spreads fast that is the thing to order. It is amazing how fresh veggies are desired when you don’t have much of them. I guess I need to mention that the desserts can be varied, tonight’s ice cream was plastic cups with a metal spoon, rather than a wooden spoon, however my fruit was a huge melon slice that was fresh and delicious.
Remind me to tell about the French couple in my next instaĺment.
Psalm 107:9