11/06/04
Friday
Map 23
N03 Photos-1062--1065
To El Cubo de Tierra del VinoAt five forty I was ready to leave and I waited a while then thought I’d see which way the shells went and see if I could find a café for coffee. Nicholas was in my bad books so I’ll look out for him on the track’ I thought. I found everywhere closed and before long I’d left town past the bullring. I did find a café in the end by a big roundabout. The track left the road but was very poorly marked and it was a bit worrying.
I came across Nicholas in a village and we walked together again, seems he passed while I had my coffee. We went a little off the track into a village for another coffee later.
Ulli arrived just as we were leaving saying she had been looking for us in Salamanca. Nicholas left and I waited for her and we walked together. We shared our lunch at one point, sitting in the shade of a prickly Holm oak (Ulli had found a baker that sold German dark bread). She told me her story of how she had been frightened on the last stretch into Salamanca. A car with two men in had crept up behind her, she had spun round as they never passed her and she felt sure one had his hand on the door handle, had he intended to open it and knock her down? They drove past and took the next turning and left the car and started to walk towards her through the field of maize. She saw them and speeded up so they could not cut her off. Then she saw two farm workers by the bridge ahead and on reaching them felt safe as the men had by now returned to their car and driven off. While you here of very few stories like this it always pays to be careful!
As the day went on I slowed down and lost Ulli just before Cubo de Vino.
I arrived tired at Cubo and found Ulli and Nicholas waiting for me in a café. The key to the albergue had to be found at the priest’s house. Ulli spoke better Spanish than me, but said they had waited so as I got a bed, (there was a possibility there would not be enough.) This was, I thought, very nice of her. We collected the key and we were shown the church and the rooms adjoining it we could use. One room was occupied and we were told the toilet was through it but not to disturb the occupants. Our beds were ok so we didn’t worry too much but later had to go to the toilet and we found someone with a blindfold on and we all realised this order had been her idea. Later that evening that same person came in to us and told us we should not put the light on or use a torch when using the toilet in the night. Ulli was furious
“Don’t worry I’ll PISS outside!”
She left without even realising she had upset Ulli. I did my washing and hung it out and on my return Ulli said to me that the priest had asked her to dinner at his house. She was to bring a friend and she thought, as I spoke Spanish I might like to accompany her. I agreed to go, but we both had to buy food for tomorrow and then return to the first cafe to cancel the dinners that we had ordered for nine o’clock. The shop keeper opened especially for us then we walked to the bar and cancelled the meal, (Nicholas didn’t get any dinner either, unknown to us they cancelled all three meals. When he told me the following day I thought it similar to the day before when I had missed my dinner because he had taken Brigitte to the pictures when he knew I was supposed to dine with her. Funny how things work out I thought.
We arrived at the priest’s house and were invited in and we presented him with two bottles of Casera and a bag of apricots. I had accidentally brought ‘Casera’ instead of water at the little shop! Ulli had brought a bag of apricots. In a tiny kitchen stood a table and three chairs. We sat down and he served me chicken noodle soup, followed by veal. Ulli got something else as she’s a vegetarian followed by a salad with tuna and for sweet we had a choice of home-made flan or the fruit we’d brought. He was quite a character and we enjoyed his company but found that we were expected to donate to the church and this cost us more than our cancelled meal at the cafe! Before we left he showed us some maps of the different Santiago routes and one caught my eye, the way from Zamora ‘The Portuguese way.’
12/06/04
Saturday
Map 24
Photos N03-1065--1077
ZamoraI rose and left at 5.30 a.m. Ulli hadn’t stirred as I’d got up, nor had Nicholas, I thought he might have the hump because I left Salamanca without him. (I didn’t know at the time that he’d had no dinner because we’d cancelled ours!)
I left Dutch Yvonne eating breakfast on a bench outside the church but she soon passed me. First in would get the best bed! While I might be one of the first away, I’d as surely be the last home as was my normal routine.
By twelve o’clock Zamora could be seen in a heat haze, it was very hot and flat with no shade anywhere. As I walked the city seemed to be getting further away rather than closer. I could see the French couple Jacques and Bernadette ahead now, thinking company would help me I tried to catch up and in time we were chatting and laughing as we walked across the barren landscape. I felt better already. I text Maisie, Jacques said in Spanish
“Get her to send us a beer.”
Maisie replied with a face with tongue hanging out and ‘Cheers’ then ‘You've been on the road seven hours Glad it's not me suffering. You don't have to you know.’
Thinking we had two hours more in this bleak barren place and it’s heat, that comment didn’t help me much. You can’t just stop and take a train home. We passed several farm sheds with animals in and a number of farm dogs that didn’t like us but we got by without getting bitten. Somewhere we picked up Nicholas and eventually we came to the city.
Tired as normal we took photos and crossed the lovely old bridge and walked up into the town and along to the
Plaza Mayor. Here we got our stamps in the police station and then looked for a place to sleep. Jacques said he had phoned ahead and booked a hostel in the Plaza Mayor. We decided to all take a look and turned to face the church, walked past the café’s and found its green door in the left corner of the plaza. We arrived just as two cyclists pressed the bell. A man answered the bell and took us back in and showed us the rooms he had. We tried to decide which to take. There was one room with three beds, another with two and a third with a double. In the end Nicholas and I decided on the first big room at twenty-four Euro a night and Jacques and Bernadette took a better room with bathroom in another part of the building. I never saw Jacques and Bernadette in Zamora again, they left early in the morning. I went to the tourist office and asked if they had anything on the ‘The Portuguese way’. They sent me to a monastery and a sweet little nun said she was very sorry the sister who normally looked after the books was out looking after a poor sick lady. She went into great detail of the problem. Then as I had given up hope of getting anything she suddenly said
“Wait there,” and disappeared back into the dark interior.
Five minutes later she returned with the same book the priest had shown Ulli and me the night before. Thinking now it must be my fate to walk that route, I left and tried the tourist office again and got a little more info. I told Nicholas I was going to stop in town for a day and see it better and rest a bit and then hopefully I would then walk the ‘Portuguese way’.
13/06/04
Sunday
Photos N03-1076--1098
Zamora
I spent the day hunting more information on the route in tourist offices etc and even walked the first part to the edge of town. One kind young lady gave me a beautiful book full of superb pictures of all the ways, Sadly I had to leave it with the hostel manager as it was far to heavy to carry. Zamora is a stunningly beautiful small town and has, they say, twelve churches, many of which I visited. There were processions both days I was there. I took lots of photos.
This one is a favourite of mine!
Fiesta
