Monday, May 1, 2023
Walking from Morille to Salamanca
21.2 kilometers

Today we reach Samalanca, the approximate half-way point of the Camino routes Via de la Plata and Camino Sanabres from Seville to Santiago de Compostela.

The day started out cool again in the early morning at 11 C (52 F) and soon warmed so that a jacket was not needed. Here I am leaving Morille at a sculpture in front of a local library. Morille is a town and albergue that I am happy to forget.

Opposite me, Javier was consulting the route on his phone. Today the route is away from busy highways and on natural farm roads almost the whole way into Salamanca.

We see many of these stacked rock walks, some dating far back in history. No grout is used to hold the rocks in place, they are carefully stacked to stay in place.

Tom and Javier ahead of me on another natural path through farmland, sometimes in the shade of trees, sometimes in vast open fields.

We continued today’s walk on natural path farm roads with no traffic and just the “crunch crunch” of our shoes on the gravel.

As noon approached, over a hill far in the distance, we had our first view of Salamanca. There is still a long, long way to go, but now we know it is there, and our minds race with anticipation even though our pace does not quicken.

A long, long way to go to Salamanca through more open fields, the road sometimes lined with bright red poppies.

We stopped for a cafe con leche in a little town. Leaving the town we saw saw this sculpture of two pilgrim’s shoes and the distances to some towns. Seven kilometers to Salamanca, 75 to Zamora, and 169 to Astorga. So, for us, 7 more kilometers to Salamanca.

We started a long, slow ascent out of the valley, the last hill before descending into Salamanca.

At the top of that last rise, we had to negotiate some rather difficult rocks to get to the top and then descend into Salamanca. This is the price we pay for the descent into Salamanca and our rest day. In the middle of the photo you can see the yellow arrow, so we know this is the way.

Down and through the outskirts of Salamanca, we cross this very old Roman bridge into the old town.

And once across the bridge, we saw our first graphical Camino shell marker on the sidewalk. Salamanca is an old historic city, and they embrace their history and heritage, including the Camino route and its history.

We went up another hill into the old historic town, and we were right at the entrance cathedral. It is difficult to get a good photo of the cathedral because there are so many buildings around. Our accommodation is less than 150 meters from the cathedral.

Right around the corner is the historic and (we are told) very important old library. On the doors are Camino shell icons. The guard here, when we told her we were pilgrims, took us inside and gave us a stamp in our credentials.

I am not going to try to discuss all the historic aspects of and sights in Salamanca. Our goal is to rest a bit, even though we will be walking around seeing the important sights, it will be a break from our pilgrim routine. I’ll cover some of the sights in the next post for our rest day. We are now approximately halfway into our pilgrimage walk on the Via de La Plata and Camino Sanabres. It has been just over three weeks since we started in Seville. Walking through southern Spain comes with so many beautiful landscapes and vistas it is difficult to express well. The word beautiful is all I have, and it is beautiful.

Next: Rest day in Salamanca