Camino 2016: Via de La Plata - Day 16 - Salamanca to Casa Saso

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Here is a profile map for the next section. I got comments that you find it helpful to follow so I will try and add this at each section.

After a very quiet night in the hotel I woke up well refreshed and took down all the washing hanging around the room which by now was nicely dry. It took a while to get everything organized and packed and then I set out from Salamanca heading north again. It wasn't long as I was heading out of town but still on a pedestrian street that I smelled a bakery and had to go in for a coffee and a fresh baked croissant - delicious.
As I left the bakery I passed a sign outside the Farmacia that said the temperature was 5°C, about 41°F. It didn't feel bad until I got out of the city and into the strong wind.
It took almost an hour and a half, walking along the side of a busy highway to get out of town which was frustrating, but finally I turned off along a trail away from the noise and smell of the traffic. The sky was clear but the strong wind was very uncomfortable even though it was mostly from behind.

The next section was across fields of crops as far as I could see with occasional farm settlements.

Pretty and one could see the track heading into the distance

I stopped for a coffee at a bar in a village along the way and met Mike and Ruth (Denver couple) just coming out. They had continued along the highway rather than taking the longer route through the fields.
They had met another peregrina who said there was a new albergue further than our original target stop for the night. I continued along to our original planned road stopping in a village and arrived there at about 11:30. I met Mike and Ruth again and we decided to try the new albergue. In the meantime I had met the other peregrina, Bridget from Austria, and she had given me details of the new albergue. I called them and asked them to reserve beds for us which they agreed to.
Off we set again and after walking about another 6 km we found it in the middle of nowhere close to the highway and the Camino route. It would be too far to continue on to the next town where we could stay. We are somewhere between Calzada and El Cubo

It is nice but very different. The beds are in a cabin with 2 rooms with 3 beds in each.

The showers etc. are in another cabin, all nice and clean.

The people are extremely friendly and do all they can to make us comfortable and we can have dinner here tonight. They have a nice garden including a swimming pool but it is much too cold to sit outside.

Wifi is excellent so I can also catch up on other mail while I'm here.
Since this albergue was in the middle of nowhere but convenient for us there were no bars or shops anywhere near so they offered us a dinner. It was excellent. Pasta and salad followed by pork loin with french fries and a joghurt. Plenty of red wine to go with it.
We were 4 people at the albergue and we all had dinner together of course

I am not sure how many km I walked today but it was at least the approx. 22 I should target each day to stay on schedule. If I drop behind for some reason I can always take a bus from larger towns for a short stretch to catch up. I just try to keep track of things so I don't get too far behind before I realize it.
Wifi seems to have stopped for the day so this will have to wait until I find wifi tomorrow.

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