Cercadilla 19 September

I am writing this as I finish my menu del dia in the Hostal Maya after today's walk. I have wifi here, which I fear will not be the the case in the polideportivo (sports pavilion) where I will be spending the night, probably with my sleeping bag spread out on a wrestling mat. Besides it does not open for another hour, so I have time to kill.

I was initially apprehensive about today's walk since the first part was to be along the M601 highway. It turned out that even though the highway did not have any shoulder,

there was a nice sendero (walkway) with plenty of shady oak trees paralleling it pretty much the whole way. And, I was lucky enough to find the yellow arrows marking the Camino Madrid once I got to the town of Navacerrada. The rest of the walk into Cercadilla was easy to follow, but there was some steep uphill on all of today's walk. I am walking in the foothills out of the Madrid area and over the Sierra Guadarrama mountains before I descend into Segovia. The weather is great in the high 70's with a gentle breeze. Today's walk was not bad, about 20 km or 12 miles. Tomorrow's will be tougher with about 21 miles, the first third of it a steep up grade to the summit.

I am posting some photos of my mid day meal here. Primero Plato was a delicious lentil stew (lentajas). And the plato segundo was boccorones. I am sure Kathy's stomach is turning at the thought of eating a plate of anchovies! Dessert was a nice slice of fresh melon. ¡Me gusta mucho la comida de españa!