Ina with Andrea on Camino Mozarabe from Cordoba to Merida

We arrived at Andrea’s home at 1 am and then I kept pottering about for more than an hour before I went to sleep. Woke up at 6 am as usual, but of course it was 7 am continental time! This is turning out to be a day of mooching about and going out in the pouring rain (what a change from our week in Spain!) and bouts of sleep - the last bout of sleep lasted somewhat longer, a whole hour, with me feeling quite exhausted afterwards. An evening spent with Andrea and her family - the grandchildren are growing well over my head; see photo. Train home tomorrow....

Sitting in Córdoba train station waiting for our train to Malaga. Got up fairly early to accompany Duncan to his train to Malaga for his plane from there to Frankfurt. We on the other hand went for our antigen test which we need to enter the UK. (Negative both of us.) Since our plane is only this evening we walked about some more, almost aimlessly, had a coffee on the Plaza de la Corredera, waiting for the indoor market to open. This square dates back to the 17th century and used to “house” a townhall and a jail. Bought loads of Iberican lomo ham to take home and in a roundabout way we made our way home and to bed for me, who would have doubted it! Then I emptied my pack completely to find a way of accommodating 5 kg of lomo! Which I managed to carry to the station on my back! Mind you, I did not carry 2 kg of water! Train ride without problem, security controls at airport no problem - my walking boots which are still full of the chalky dust from the camino needed to go separately thro...

Leisurely day! Waking up early and staying in bed! What a change from the last few days. Latish breakfast “at home” and walk to the Mezquita - we had tickets for 9:30 am. On the steps was Ilka who had had an early morning visit. Well, the Mezquita really is quite overwhelming. It used to be a major mosque equal to Mekka in importance to the Western Mediterranean world. A vast building with a forest of columns. And in the middle a cathedral was built after the reconquista. An amazing blend of Muslim and Christian building styles.  After this extremely tiring visit a longish sit-down for coffee in the shade - the night had been quite cool, but now it was heating up quickly. On to the Roman Temple - not much left to see, but this is a project in the making. Walking about all over the place we came across a church dedicated to the expiring Christ and a sort of missionaries’ congregation attached to it: Hermandad de l’Expiración. And we ended up in the Palacio de Viana, quite a modest l...

26.6 km   Total walking 5:49 hrs     9 hrs including pauses, even the very long pause at the first bar coming into Córdoba. Average speed 4.6 km/h.  Up 420 m, down 513 m We made it! Hurray! There was no question that Andrea and Duncan would make it, but after the painful beginning I made it too! Today was the most difficult day because the walk was long and hot. A fair length of road to begin with and a number of lorries overtaking us. So Duncan and I took to the ditch every time a lorry approached and at one point I slipped and fell on my left knee. Nothing really hurt, but my trousers were torn at that knee and the knee looked bloody, without any blood flowing. Since I was six years old I have not had a bloody knee. At that time I always had a bloody knee because I always fell again before the crust of the previous wound had fallen off. - I ran about so much. So now I have this crust and I hope I will not repeat the way I carried on when I was six! T...

23.1 km         Time walked. 6:16 hrs         Total time with pauses 8:30 hrs                                             Average speed 3.7 km/h                     up 480 m     down 498 m Difficult day, but beautiful all the same.  Above all practically no road until right at the end, but bumpy stony chalky white track most of the time. Not lose stones, but mostly biggish stones set immovably in the white dust. So with stones sticking out I had to watch carefully how I put down my feet and had difficulties putting them down in flat places - you see the picture. But as usual it was a lovely fresh morning and we advanced nicely to a small town almost half way. We stopped at the main square which was really just the main street enlarged. This street came over the top of the hil...

  21.3 km     Walking time 4:23 hrs (again keeping up nicely with the "children")  plus 1 h stop half way.  Average speed 4.6 km/ h (“Your highest speed” the system tells me “was 7 km/h.” Wow! I am telling myself.)   up 142 m   down 323 m Another glorious day like yesterday! Glorious and easy! Short, relatively, and not wildly up and down, in fact quite flat most of the time, a fair length of road which for me is easy walking. My foot is comfortable the way I have set it up - I do not feel it until almost the end - not painful, I just feel it is there. Olive groves as before, but we noticed one small vine plantation and later one small pomegranate plantation. However coming into Castro there were several olive tree nurseries - so the future of all those olive plantations is secure. Going up into town we soon came to the Castillo, a 12th century fort within the fortified town. And for the first time on this camino we stopped in a bar...