Zamora

 Zamora

Arrived in Zamora and grabbed a taxi to the bar where we were to meet Peter and Andy and the landlady with keys for apartment. She very kindly brought a young friend who spoke good English as she spoke none.  Pete's heart sank when he found we were on the third floor and no lift.  He is very tired from these two days walking.

We get settled and the apartment is quite cute. We each have our own bedrooms. What luxury. The apartment has a bath and Peter quickly commandeers it for a long soak. He does this a few times over the two days here and it rejuvenates him completely. 

Zamora is a lovely town, almost as big as Salamanca with a very interesting history as it was a critical town on the frontier and is accessed by the Duero river which flows all the way to Portugal as well as being a vital post for the north south Via de la Plata. It changed hands many times between Christians and Moors and was a fortified city against the warring heirs of one of the kings of Castille y Leon.  It has the remnants of a castle with a moat no less. Also it has 22 Romanesque churches of which we saw about 8! The cathedral is very beautiful and has an amazing collection of tapestries. The details were exquisite and told great stories. We paid for the audio tour and it was really worth it.

The moat around the castle

The cathedral

Historic Olive  presses on the river

Modern and old together using the same stone and the fabulous trees that are trained to intertwine.

We were all looking for a change of menu and came across a Chinese restaurant. It is actually run by a Thai. We pounced on the Chinese buffet because they had a very wide range of options but they also had fresh food that you could select and they would cook to order. We went twice. We ordered jasmine tea but they called it chilly tea and it was only when it arrived that we understood what we were getting.

We catch up with Dennis again after seeing him briefly in Salamanca and he was very pleased to find the Chinese food because he has been missing vegetables too.

Katharina turns up as well and tells us that Niko has been dumped from the rehab program he was on and just abandoned.  She followed up with the organisation New Horizon who said he was not cooperating so they just literally cut him loose. We are all appalled by their lack of responsibility and duty of care. He is only 16. Katharina  and her Camino friends contribute €20 so he can get back to Salamanca and get some help.

There are more pilgrims on the road from Zamora now and accommodation is getting tight. 

We set off for Montamarta today after our two day sojourn in Zamora. I was a little anxious that my breathing would be okay and Karen has rejoined us to walk even though her leg is not 100%. It feels good enough. Today's walk is just through undulating fields of barley and wheat and only 19 km so a good test for us both. 

We find our rather odd little Casa rural El Brunedo. The host is very jovial and offers us some of his home made wine. Then he locks the back of the house up and disappears. We can't get out the back to hang our washing outside so it is draped around the room. The place has a great shower. Even though it was on the main road I slept soundly. 

It was not as noisy as I expected. We head out to explore and find a very strange sculpture(?) in the main square. It is a tree stuck into the bitumen with a stuffed dummy hanging from it. It is very tall and a complete mystery. The town is rather ugly with no centre. We find a pleasant bar with lawn and spend a couple if hours playing cards. We go exploring further and find Katharina and the Aussies. Dinner is at Meson Rosemary and we share with new pilgrims Anna rose from Germany and Swit from Denmark. This is their third Camino and they are in their late sixties. They are good company.