Monday, April 17, 2023
Walking from Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros
20.2 kilometers

Today marks the start of the second week of walking on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes.

A note on Maps and Step Counts

I’m not happy with some of the technology I am trying to use on this Camino pilgrimage walk. The maps Samsung Health provides are not satisfactory, and while the Google Fit maps are a little better, Google Fit breaks the day’s walk into separate “workouts” whenever I stop for a break, which means a separate map for each “workout.” The step counts vary, sometimes dramatically, between Google Fit and Samsung Health. Focusing on the walk in the morning, I often forget to start the “workout” in Samsung Health when I start walking for the day, and only remember a half hour or an hour or more later.

My focus on this pilgrimage walk is the walk itself. At the end of a day’s walk, I am tired, my feet hurt, I need a shower, to wash clothes, and I also want lunch, dinner, and to prepare for eating the next day. There is little time and almost no energy for learning new technology and how best to use it. Therefore, I will dispense with posting a map of the day’s walk. And, I will not post the step counts either, because they do not represent reality.

Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros

After the dark mood descended on me yesterday, I woke today hopeful for a better day. My right foot had improved some with rest, and today’s walk promised to be off the main roads and in farmland.

Tom, Javier, Leonard and I left from Zafra fairly early and came upon this old stone church steeple as we walked up the hill to the farmland at the end of the street.

We followed the markers to the path in the farmland. These markers were recently placed to honor the historic Roman road that the Via de la Plata follows from Seville to Granja de Moreruela (where we will turn left to follow the Camino Sanabres through Ourense to Santiago de Compostela). The green means this is on the path of a Roman road, and the yellow means this is a “passable road.” Most of the time when we see these way markers, we see both green and yellow. Occasionally we see only the yellow, suggesting that we are no longer on the path of a Roman road.

After walking for a time in farm country, we started down a slight hill to Los Santos de Maimona where we were hoping to stop for a break.

Javier caught this photo of Leonard and me near the end of the hill close to the town.

In the town of Los Santos de Maimona was this very nice and strong-looking stone church.

Most churches in these small towns are closed and locked except for Mass. This church was open and gated, so we could see inside, but not actually go inside. Here is a view of this simple but nice church from the gates at the back:

On the way out I took a photo of Tom and Leonard at the door of the church.

After our break and some additional food, we were back into the farm fields continuing on the way to Villafranca de los Barros. So far, my right foot is feeling better than yesterday, so I remain hopeful.

After a long stretch of olive trees, we saw thus newly planted vineyard. We have seen a few of these, and we admire the optimism of the farmers. Of course, there would not make the investment if they weren’t fairly certain of a good outcome.

Continuing on, the surroundings always change, often gradually, and soon we were back in olive groves. The road here was much more rocky and uneven than before meaning harder on the feet.

Through the olive groves, and we were to cross railroad tracks again. These are very well-maintained rail lines.

After crossing the rail line and continuing on, we were again walking by a new vineyard and could see Villafranca de los Barros in the distance. This view comes with mixed emotions. We are happy to know that the day’s walk is coming to a completion, and yet the town seems so far away prolonging the walk.

Apparently, there is a bullfighting festival to be in Villafranca de los Bassos soon. We saw this poster as we approached the town. Bullfighting is a major part of the culture in Spain. I suspect it will eventually die out as many people in the younger generations are not strong followers.

Finally, I came to the large metal sign at the entrance of the city announcing that Villafranca is the city of music.

We continued into the city and found our albergue. I took this photo of Leonard, Tom, and Javier talking to the hospitalero (albergue manager) who is at an upstairs window.

After getting settled, we made our way to a restaurant for lunch before they closed for siesta. I had this purple cabbage, apple, and cheese salad, almost a cole-slaw, and pork loin with potatoes. A really, really good meal.

Day 8 ended much better than day 7. My mood has lifted because of the kind people with whom I am walking, and because of the very beautiful scenery in which we are walking. This was a very uplifting day.

Next: Villafrance de los Barros to Torremejia