Almussafes 15 September 2022

 Bomba rice field

The Camino markers in Valencia are brass plaques glued to the concrete and donated by the American Pilgrims on the Camino.

Piel de Sapo melons only 50 cents a pound. Food prices in Spain are still reasonable. My 1/4 pound baguette was only 45 cents.

Lots of suburbia 

Many of Valencia's buildings date from late 1800's are are representative of that beautiful style

In front of the cathedral, ready to start 

According to the guide book, today's walk was supposed to be only twelve miles to more gently break me into this camino. But it went on and on and my All Trails app said that I actually walked 16.6 miles (27 km.). After a leisurely breakfast at my hostel, I arrived at the cathedral in Valencia at 9 am. The cathedral here is the traditional place to start the Camino Levante. Well, i walked for six hours and took only two short ten minute breaks. Since Valencia is the third largest city in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona are larger), there were miles of suburbs, then miles of industrial parks to walk through before I reached open fields that included orange groves, persimmons, vegetables, and the bomba rice that the region is famous for. I arrived in Almussafes, where I had a reservation in a very nice Hotel Residencia at 3 pm, about dead tired and dehydrated in the 90 degree heat. But after drinking a liter or two of water and collapsing on the bed for half an hour, I took a cool shower and walked up to the Consum grocery store for my dinner of olives, alubias con chorizo (white beans with sausage), sardines in tomato sauce, a small baguette, a bottle of dry Rueda appellation Viura wine, and a bottle of Agua Gaseosa to spritz it with. l am fine now, sated with good Spanish food and wine, and resting up for tomorrow's walk which, according to the guidebook, is only twelve miles.