El Real de la Jara to Monasterio

We woke up early and packed our packs before going to the local bar for breakfast with Karl and Inger-Marie. I had a lousy night's sleep. The room we were staying was a small windowless room. When we first looked at our new, I already had my reservations about it but decided to stay as it seemed better than the Albergue. We pain a little extra for this room but the bed was by far the worst, I have slept in so far. The springs in the mattress was hellbent on poking me in my back or whatever other body part was in direct contact with the mattress. I was glad when I finally could get up. Anyway after another breakfast of toast with jam, orange juice and coffee we set off to Monasterio. The walk was pleasant in the beginning but after 10 kilometres we found ourselves walking along the road or very close to it. Walking like this is my pet hate. I love being surrounded by nature and listen to the sounds of birds and other animals or even waves crashing on the beach. Nothing works better to help me relax and walking on roads is the complete opposite of this. Anyway we had our first break after two and a half hours of walking with Uschi at a bar. We had another cup of coffee and a Spanish Shandy. In Spain they make shandy with lemon squash instead of lemonade and it is not bad but I still prefer it with lemonade. Once we finished our drinks we decided to have our lunch there as well. Lunch looked rather uninviting, but tasted better than a pilgrim's meal. After lunch we set off again and found ourselves walking along the highway and starting to climb. The climb was so bad that we needed to
have another break after only one hour. After this rest Karl and Inger-Marie caught up with us and we

After this rest Karl and Inge-Marie caught up with us and we walked the rest of the way with them. We all decided to book ourselves into a hostel again as here we would be able to connect to the WiFi system and get in touch with family and friends. We exchanged e-mail addresses with Uschi today as she offered us a place to stay in Berlin. We are planning to go to Berlin during this holiday but were not sure if this would be possible as the prices in Berlin are very steep. With Uschi offering us a place to stay we believe Berlin will be very possible. The hostel where we are staying tonight is wonderful. It has extremely comfortable beds with our own en-suite. There is even a bath and a bidet and the free access to the Wifi system. We payed a considerable sum to stay at this place but it is so worth it. For 50 euros we even get dinner and breakfast thrown in. I had a relaxing soak in the bath whilst Gary had a nap. Dinner will be served at 2030 hours. This is normal for the Spanish but it has taken some time for us to get used to this. We both got on the internet and checked our e-mails and Facebook and Hyves. We had dinner with Karl and Inge-Marie and checked what time breakfast would be served the following morning. After a really great sleep we were all back at the bar at 0730 hours for breakfast. Here we also exchanged e-mail addresses with Karl and Inge-Marie as Inger-Marie had a migraine and decided that they needed to stay another night in Monasterio to recover. Today we will walk to Fuente de Cantos and will be staying in an Albergue. We are hoping that we will meet up with Uschi again sometime today.

Castilblanco de Los Arroyos to Almaden de la Plata

We woke up early and packed our packs. After some breakfast in the dark, we set off with Karl the German. After sorting out my pack I am glad that it is now several kilos lighter but it also has become clear that we will need to carry the maximum amount of water with this heat. My water bladder hold 3 litres and it has been filled to capacity this morning. The walk to Almaden de la Plata started with a 16 kilometres walk on an quiet road before turning off into a National Park. In this National Park we can potentially spot a deer or two and  some Spanish pigs. Well we did not see any deer but we did see some Spanish pigs. These pigs have a bluish colour and are on a strict diet. The town where we are going serves a local speciality using these pigs. I believe it is spare ribs and was hoping to try some as spare ribs is one of my favourite meals. Unfortunately this did not happen. The walk through this National Park was very pleasant.

Karl was taking some photos of a Cork tree and explained how the cork was harvested, I also made a photo to remember this particular tree. We rested several times as this walk was

very tiring and with 10 kilometres to go, I was not at all confident that I was going to make it. The last 3 kilometres were the toughest with a 100
metre steep climb, followed by a descend on slippery rocks but we all made it safely to the bottom. Almaden de la Plata is one of the better towns in Spain and we stayed at the only albergue in town. This was a clean albergue with hot water again. However there was one thing missing, toilet paper. Both Gary and I had an upset stomach from the previous night's meal and were thankful we brought a roll of toilet paper from home. In this albergue we met some other people who were doing the Camino on their bikes , most of them were from Spain but we also met a couple from Doetinchem and they went to the local bar with us for dinner. So now we had Karl, Inge-Marie, Arie and Letty in our group. Somehow, I really don't know how, we got talked into another pilgrim's meal. I was really worried but was delighted as this one was absolutely fantastic. The  bar's owner was the loveliest and most generous guys. He
gave us a sweet wine after dinner and some Madeira cake for the following day.  All this for nothing. I was more than happy to give this guy a tip. Letty gave me her e-mail address as she will also be walking the 4 day walk of the world in Nijmegen and we thought it would be nice to catch up after the walks for a drink of beer. We also exchanged e-mail addresses with Karl from Germany as he was
planning to walk to Monasterio the following day (a 38 kilometres hike). Initially we were thinking about doing this as well for training purposes but decided against this after today's walk and finding out that the way to Monasterio was mostly uphill once again. I just did not think I had it in me to do that hike in 1 day. We decided to do the 16 kilometres walk to El Real de la Jarra instead and take it easy for a day. Another good night in the albergue and we even managed to sleep in until sunrise, we said our goodbyes to Karl, before heading off to our next destination.