Day 11 – Bus & Train Rides from Salamanca to Ourense

So, we set off quite early this morning from Salamanca as we were catching the bus and train to get to Ourense. We managed to get some food last night to have a brief breakfast in our room, just some boiled eggs and bread and stuff like that. And then we set off to the bus station to get the nine o’clock bus from Salamanca to Zamora. It all went seamlessly. It was a great bus ride and really interesting to go back over old ground because we went through a lot of villages that I had passed through during my 2023 walk on the Via de la Plata.

So, we got to Zamora and easily found the train station which was three or four hundred meters away. Just had time for a coffee and some toast and then caught our train to Ourense. Again, very seamless Spanish buses and trains seem to operate very efficiently and a great service. We even got a snack on the train as part of the ticket.

Some great views and what surprised me was all the tunnels that we went through as we got closer to Ourense and I’m thinking tunnels? That means hills, mountains. So, I think we’re going to be doing a hilly couple of days to begin with here.

We checked into the hotel in Ourense, which is the IMI, really great hotel, very helpful staff. Just popped out for a little bite of lunch. We’re relaxing, doing our washing. Both feeling a bit tired to be honest, so we won’t be going too far for dinner tonight.

And tomorrow is getting up to 30 degrees, so we’re going to start really early from the hotel, about 6 o’clock, well, before daybreak at 7. But as it’s road walking, we’ll be okay with our head torches for the first hour or so, and we want to get up to Tamallancos, our first stop, well before it gets too hot. I’ve contacted the little guest house where we’re staying and they said it’s fine, we can turn up early. They have a bar that we can hang out in. So, let’s see how we go.