Salamanca etc

The Via de la Plata is another of Spain’s multitude of ancient pilgrimage routes. It begins in the south, in Seville, and winds its way north to meet the Camino Francés at Astorga. Incidentally while the name is usually interpreted as the Silver Way, the name apparently derives from the word “al-balat”, an arabic term meaning “cobbled paving”, a widely used word of the time that may have referred back to Roman origins or influence.

Anyway, I left the Camino Francés at Astorga to make use of the Via de la Plata as a handy trail to make my south to Salamanca – a place I’ve wanted to have a look at for a while. The 270-ish km from León to Salamanca took about 2 1/2 days – it’s pretty flat (and there was nothing else to do), and after the crowds of pilgrims on the Camino, I found it remarkably devoid of people (just the very occasional pilgrim on foot), and devoid of pretty much everything else too…

50km or so north of Salamanca I spotted a pair of bikes parked outside a village bar. It was 11am and James (@smilingpligrim) and Claire, were enjoying a nip of red wine. A pair of bright and lovely souls they were slowly trundling north one glass at a time…

I’d planned to spend a week or so in Salamanca catching up with work, but as I write I’m a little bit east, in the mediaeval walled town of Avila.. and pondering my next move. I’ve been wondering if I collected a stealthy, and mild, dose of covid while in the crowded albergues of the Camino Francés, or the crowded bars of León… nothing specific, no cough or sneeze, just a general persistent feeling of tiredness with the occasional headache, and non-specific aching muscle, regardless of how much sleep I get, similar to past times I’ve had a post-viral thing.

Avila is beautiful and so well preserved it feels somewhat like a Game of Thrones set, albeit one with restaurants… and being a tourist attraction sadly they’re often the kind of restaurants that have menus with pictures on.

Still feeling tired I slung my bike on the train to Avila yesterday – it’s a great launchpad to head into the Sierra de Gredos mountains for a few days. I’m hoping to spend a few days there but depending on how that goes it may be that I get the train back to Vitoria for a couple of weeks, my friend there has very generously left me with an open invite; we’d planned to meet anyway during October for a cruise through the Montañas Vacias (empty mountains) in the east, something for which I’ll need my energy back.

I’ll sleep on it, and sleep on it some more. In the meantime a few snaps follow. I am enjoying the opportunity for some street photography again, so apologies if that’s not your thing at all….