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.