Depart Time: 7:30 Temp: 55F RH: 80%
Walked today: 3.9 mi. Camino 2024: 32.6 mi.
We left Albergue Maralotx and followed the maze-like streets exiting Zirauki (Basque)…
… and immediately joined a Roman road!
After crossing a major expressway, the Camino ran parallel to a gravel farm road winding through wheat fields, vineyards and an overgrown creek bed. This continued for nearly 2 miles.
Scattered along the way were short stretches of a Roman presence from over 2000 years ago. Much of the Camino Frances follows the same road built and used for several hundred years to transport precious metals and other goods from Northwestern Spain to Rome.
We opted to patronize a different bar from our usual for breakfast. And since we were arriving at Lorca too early (10:00) to checkin, we decided to kill an hour or so before walking on to our destination on the other end of main street.
But being already seated and committed, we were informed that tostadas were offered, but not with our usual butter and jelly (mantiquilla & marmalada) to go along with our cafe con leche. Unwilling to go elsewhere, we were now faced with a choice between two different condiment for our toast… tomato puree or olive oil. These two options are common in Spain, but up to now, we never wanted to forgo the toast with mantiquilla & marmalada for the unknown. However, today, faced with this unsettling dilemma, we went for the tomatoes. While the tomatoes on toast were not a disaster, we’ll continue our preference for M&M!
Our extended breakfast of: cafe con leche, tostadas with tomatoes, fresh squeezed OJ, and a packet of hazelnuts completed and an interesting conversation with a pilgrim from Florida, we proceeded on to Casa Nahia, our bed & breakfast for the night.
We prepared our own pizza for lunch, then relaxed the rest of the afternoon.
A traditional dinner was prepared by Raol, the owner. First course was a white bean soup with soft fresh made bread rolls. Second course was a turkey stew with homemade fried potatoes and stewed red peppers. Dessert was a strawberry yogurt.
We were the only guests for dinner, so we settled our account for the day and retired to our comfortable room for the evening at 7:30.
Tomorrow will be another short day (5 miles) walking into one of our favorite Camino towns, Estella.
Jimandi 