Pilgrims' Penance on the Way to Zamora

I decided to spend three days getting from Salamanca to Zamora. That put me on the road less travelled, because most people do it in two long 35 km days. The first day was pretty enough, bringing me to Calzada de Valdunciel. But the second day.....

There were at least 17 km right next to the brand new super-highway A-66. This super-highway was neither designed nor engineered with pilgrims in mind. What should have been a long 33 km walk became an interminable up and down back and forth that never seemed to end. One of the Spanish guide books talks about "llanos falsos" (fake flats) because Castilla and León are supposedly all flat and midwestern, but in reality there are ups and downs all over the place. Whoever designed the A-66 decided that nature hadn't given us enough of those ups and downs, and so the peregrino walking has to go up and down and around every time the super-highway has an overpass. It was not fun, not pretty, but at least it wasn't hot either.

I spent last night in an albergue turístico in a town called Villanueva del Campeán. This town has hundreds of houses, most of them shut up tight, ten children and a total of 80 inhabitants. The albergue had a nice room with beds for 12, and there were only 5 of us. Since the albergue is run by the bar next door, and since there are no stores in town, there's kind of a monopoly situation here in terms of where to eat dinner. I had the first really good tortilla española and some wonderful locally grown greens, so I was a happy camper.

I'm now in Zamora, it's an incredible town. You can see it when you are 11 or 12 km away, kind of like the Emerald City. But what you can't make out on the skyline is the cathedral. In most of the cities I have walked into, the cathedral dominates the skyline -- not so in Zamora. Not until I was about 10 minutes (walking) out of town did I even see the very recognizable cathedral tower and dome. I may have mentioned this already but there are more than 20 romanesque churches here, so I am in hog heaven.

The albergue in Zamora is terrific. There are rooms with 3 bunk beds and a private bath/shower, a huge commons room, and a kitchen. Such luxury. When the hospitalero ("guy in charge") saw that the sheet on my bunk had a spot on it, he whisked it away and brought a clean one. If he only knew about the condition of the beds I've slept on in the last few weeks....

This hospitalero is a volunteer from Portugal doing a two week stint. He was delighted to find out that I speak Portuguese so we have had several long chats. When I asked whether I could leave my backpack in the albergue during the day so I could walk out to San Pedro de la Nave (a 7th century visigothic church about 23 km outside of the city), he offered take me in his car since he wants to see it as well. I will go with him and then try to walk back, we'll see if the way is marked.

Well, here in Zamora marks the end of my solitary camino. Dana is arriving tomorrow from California, and we will take on the last 400 kms together. I will be here in Zamora for another couple of days, it is too beautiful a city to just walk through.