Poppies

On this date, in 1810, people in Argentina took the first steps towards breaking away from Spain and becoming an independent nation.

My brother and I wanted to celebrate in some way, but this is a small town with no Argentinian food available. So we had a bowl of lentil soup, a ham and cheese sandwich, and each a glass of wine:

Besides celebrating a holiday, today we walked almost 20 kms. That’s not so much for many pilgrims, but for us it is more than enough.

The vegetation is changing again. The wildflowers along the road are different than before. We see a lot of roses now,

both the cultivated (garden) variety

and the wild roses.

The vineyards are beautifully kept:

and frequently there are cherry trees, often at the edges of the vineyards:

Cottonwoods are going crazy, and sometimes the ground looks like fresh snow just fell:

And life on the Camino wouldn’t be full without some poppies:

Only 12 kms today. Yeah, say my feet!

Today’s walk was a great improvement over yesterday’s. Big improvement. It was a sunny, warm walk on a dirt path, through a couple charming towns, to the small town where we’re staying.

There are many bridges all along the Camino. Today we walked over the bridge at Hospital de Órbigo.

It turns out this is one of the best known bridges of the Camino Francés. The link below has the history of the bridge and the legend associated with it:

The Bridge of Hospital de Órbigo

We had one of the best lunches so far on the Camino. A salad with good lettuce, avocado, cherry tomatoes, fresh cheese (queso fresco) and smoked salmon. Delicious! We had a bottle of beer, Alhambra Reserva (the green bottle). We know one place at home where they serve this beer. It is good!

The albergue where we’re at is a renovated old home. It had been abandoned for 25 years before our host purchased it and converted it to a hostel. Originally it had a kitchen and small living quarters, a large patio where animals (horses, cows, pigs, chickens) and farming tools were kept, and storage rooms for grains and hay. The storage rooms are beautiful guest rooms now, the patio a commons area. There is also now a kitchen and a dining area. It must have been a tremendous amount of work to fix it all up!