Ina with Andrea on Camino Mozarabe from Cordoba to Merida

  26.5 km.    5:35 h. plus about 2 hours walkabout and sitting about in Medellin, then 1 hour  in Yelbes and finally 50 min somewhere in the shade under an olive tree where I had a siesta and we had some food left in our packs…. Sitting in a/the only bar in the village of Yelbes, at well over half today’s distance. Mostly road again - quite scary coming out of Don Benito during this morning’s rush hour! For a change the sun is shining, but there is quite a stiff breeze, nice and cool. After two hours a first stop (two hours walking followed by two hours stop!) in Medellin - some sightseeing for a change. Will have to look up some of the places ie the church of Santa Cecilia - its clock tower is missing like broken off - why? how? The history of the ruined castle? The church of St Martin and of Santiago at the foot of the castle - closed, being renovated)?  Hernan Cortez was born here - there is an impressive statue in the square in front of the town hall…. ...

  6 h     27 km   plus two large pauses  45 min and 1h 5 min  The two “helpers” I mentioned yesterday turned out to be pilgrims - mostly pilgrims greet each other upon arrival which these two did not. And seeing the amount of material for painting etc was lying about in various corners I assumed….. Last night our hospitalera brought us serrano ham, butter and biscuits for a snack either in the evening - seeing the bar was not open - or to have for breakfast. We had it immediately while discussing with the hospitalera, Leo, hence finally the photo of the three of us which I posted last night. Well, the pilgrims woke us up this morning, started talking noisily at 6ish and continued their loud conversation until they left much later. Thus we got out at 7:30 am into a fresh and cloudy morning. And it is fresh and cloudy still as we are having our second pause (lunchtime without lunch) in a bar in La Habla which is two thirds of the way to Don Benito, our destinatio...