El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino 26 September

The view of the cathedral in Salamanca from near our albergue

This was the walk out of Salamanca this morning

This is the view that I saw most of the day.

Walking into the village

Garbanzos with bacalao fish and paprika

eggs with beef

Main Street in the village

The albergue

Our hospitelero helping the bicycle pilgrim to repair his flat tire

Well today's walk was a long and dull mostly on the highway, 23 miles or so, with no alternate place to stop any sooner. This is very good farming country, wheat, corn, and sunflowers, but not a lot of people or villages. Tonight's stop is a farming village, El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino, which would translate as the Cube of the Earth of the Wine. Hhmmm?

I am staying at a mom and pop albergue in this little farming town. Just got in after 7 1/2 hours of walking. The hospitalera was surprised that I arrived as soon as I did, since I was walking from Salamanca.  As soon as I arrived, I had the comida casera ( home cooking) for mid day meal. The primer plato was garbanzos in a sauce of paprika and bacalao fish, the segundo plata two eggs with peppers and beef, and a postre of the really good Spanish melon.

After my meal, shower, and clothes washing, I took a walk around the village. Aside from a little activity in the two bars, nothing else seemed to be going on. I walked back to the albergue to see that Tinga from Hungary and Jay from northern Ireland were just arriving.

What a contrast this is just one day's walk from the cosmopolitan university city of Salamanca. There is a tractor parked in the town square. Our hosts have horses, dogs, olives, grapes, straw bales. I have to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of our hosts. He sat along the road coming into town pitching his place with all the reasons why we should stay.  He convinced us. As I am sitting here writing this, I see that he just brought in a couple on a tandem bicycle, hauling them in on his trailer. They look very tired and also have a flat tire, which he is now helping them to fix. He just took off again to the highway to see if more pilgrims will arrive later.