Salmeron 1 October 2019

First, to continue yesterday's post from Viilaconejos del Trabaque, I went outside at 8:20 pm to find Paul waiting to take me up to the dinner site. It turned out to be in a bodega or wine cave, carved out of the side of the hill in the 1830's. We started preparing the meal by cutting up items for the salad and some Manchego cheese, of course, a bit of red wine to drink, too. Paul also prepared a fire in the fireplace. I wasn't sure why as it was not that cold and the door was open. About 9:15, Pepe, the other hospitalero showed up with more ingredients (olive oil, garlic, thick bacon, chorizo) and he and Paul put them into a a pot, then  heated it up over the wood fire. After they were sauteed, water was added and they cooked a bit longer. Finally, Pepe added chunks of bread and a few eggs. In the meantime, Alejandro showed up with some good blue cheese type of cheese that he spread on to more chunks of bread, plus some cured jamon. We had our salad and munched on the appetizers until the soup was ready. Next, we enjoyed that, plus a few pork chops also cooked over the wood fire. The meal ended up with some of the good Spanish melon and a tasting of four different kinds of distilled liqueurs that Pepe made. In between, they showed me the cave and how they made and stored the wine in huge  clay pots in past times. By the way, they still have a 500 liter stainless steel tank that they keep full of red wine to use as needed. It was a fabulous experience, one that few tourists to Spain would be able to experience. I am really grateful and want to thank Paul, Pepe, and Alejandro for making the evening possible. I finally got to bed at 11:30 pm, way past my usual camino bed time.

And today, I was up before 7 am to get prepared and start walking by 7:50 am. Today's walk was a long one, 30 km or 18 miles. Some steep, a little on asphalt, but mostly nice gravrel tracks through farmland and some forest. I arrived in Salmeron right at 2 pm. Got the keys from the bar for albergue and got settled in. i was warned there were two bars only, no hot food served anywhere, and tienda a that closed at 2. It is a sleepy almost dead town with few people out and about, but that's okay as I brought in enough food and I have a nice albergue to stay in.