by Rob | Mar 23, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Food, Places, Videos
It felt great to be back in Spain after 5 years away from the Camino. I flew from Sydney to Madrid with a very brief (22 hour) stopover in Dubai to do some work meetings. And the trip from Madrid went like clock work. A taxi to Atocha station and a very comfortable...
by Rob | Mar 23, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Food, Journey, Places
I arrived in Seville last night, and although very tired, I thought it would be nice to have a walk around and grab a snack before hitting the bed early. I have to say the whole journey has been excellent so far and I’ve been very lucky with all the transfers. I...
by Rob | Mar 24, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
After arriving last night, I had a day off in Seville to look around and rest before starting my Camino. Hotel Simon is in a great location, just around the corner from the cathedral. I booked a brief tour through Viator which I have used many times before. The tour...
by Rob | Mar 24, 2023 | Accommodation, Camino Via de la Plata, Places
So, on recommendation from Ivar’s forum, I booked at Hotel Simon, which is very central in Seville, and, in fact, very close to the cathedral. It is a very old building with a lot of Moorish influence. But of course, being an old building, there are lots of rattles...
by Rob | Mar 24, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Places
So, here are a few photographs of the cathedral and the Alcázar, which is the royal palace. So, this morning after my online doctor’s appointment and taking some antibiotics, I went out on a tour that I had pre-booked to look at the cathedral and the Alcazar. It is...
by Rob | Mar 25, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Camino Day 1. My first Camino day on the Via de la Plata (VdlP)! Very excited. I have been waiting years to walk this Camino. A short walk today, only 10kms, from Seville to Santiponce just as a warm up and to give me time to look at the Roman ruins at Italica....
by Rob | Mar 26, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Camino Day 2 on the Via de la Plata (VdlP). A lovely walk in open countryside from Santiponce to Guillena that reminded me of the Meseta on the Camino Frances crossing the infamous Arroyo and rather a big lunch at the end of the day. I think most people walk from...
by Rob | Mar 27, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 3 on the VdlP. A bit longer today, 18 kms from Guillena to Castilblanco de los Arroyos. A really hot day on the Camino but beautiful countryside at last. I’m still not really seeing any other Pilgrims. But I did find some interesting footprints in the sand...
by Rob | Mar 28, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 4 on the Via de la Plata. A glorious Camino day walking through an amazing natural park called the Sierra Norte. But with a very tough hill at the end and some rather hungry looking birds of prey circling over me as a struggle up the hill. I wasn’t sure how...
by Rob | Mar 29, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 5 of the VdlP. Just 13.6 kms today. It is either that or 33! And my feet can’t take that distance. This is one of the challenges of the VdlP. It’s a bit like a chess game where you have to think 2 or 3 moves ahead, so that you can work out your...
by Rob | Mar 30, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 6 on the VdlP. 20 kms today from El Real de la Jarra to Monesterio. It was an early Camino start in the dark in search of breakfast. I had to walk from the far side of town, back through town, but found a great bar open. There always seems to be a bar open...
by Rob | Mar 31, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 7 on the Via de la Plata. It’s 20.7 kms from Monesterio to Fuente de Cantos. A comfortable distance for me. It was also my first day at leaving much earlier. I mean early ‘pre-dawn’. I thought I might not find any breakfast, always a risk with a very...
by Rob | Apr 1, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 8 – Fuente de Cantos to Zafra. 24.2 kms today. But the last 4 was alongside a road, so my feet were complaining. Another great day! Starting in the dark at 6:30 am. And again I find a great bar just opening for breakfast. It’s 6.2 kms to the next...
by Rob | Apr 2, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 9 Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros. Not a great sleep last night. There were a lot of partying going on right outside my room. But nevermind, today is a relatively okay day in terms of distance – 20 kms. So, I’m going to have a slow and steady day. I was hoping...
by Rob | Apr 3, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
So today was the day that I thought might be a challenge because it’s 27 kilometres with no stops. Unless you take a detour of 4 kilometers off the Camino, but it turned out to be a really great day. I explain the detour in the video below. The Walking surface...
by Rob | Apr 4, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 11 – Torremejia to Merida. Today is just a short day of 15 kilometers. The weather is great and the walking was fairly easy. Before I set off for the day though, I’m going to show you around the Albergue that I stayed in to give you an idea of what...
by Rob | Apr 5, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
It’s a day off in Merida. I always feel a little bit awkward about having days off because sometimes your body tells you that you need to take a rest, particularly your feet. Very often you want to just keep moving, but I think it is sensible to have a day off...
by Rob | Apr 6, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 13 – Merida to Aljucen. Just 17 kms today. It was either that or 36 kms. It was another fantastic day on the Via de la Plata Camino. It started off with a before dawn start, and in fact I managed to time it so that during twilight, as I was leaving the...
by Rob | Apr 7, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 14. Another lovely day today, walking from Aljucen to Alcuescar. It is about 19 kilometres walking through lovely countryside. I saw amazing cows walking along these country tracks, and the whole herd of cows were across the track, all around me, and it was good...
by Rob | Apr 8, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 15 – Alcuescar to Valdesalor. 26 kms. That’s a long way for me. It’s quite a long day today and as the afternoons are getting quite hot, it was going to be a pre dawn start. It was a great day’s walking though, nice and flat, great scenery. Although...
by Rob | Apr 9, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 16 – Valdesalor to Casar de Caceres. Today I didn’t expect to be too hard a day, it was about 22 kilometres, although the weather in the afternoons is still quite hot. Hopefully, as we get further north, it will start to cool a bit. The first bit then...
by Rob | Apr 10, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 17 – Casar de Caceres to Grimaldo. Now, this day was always going to be a bit of a challenge because the idea has been to walk from Casar de Caceres past the embalse, the big reservoir, up to a casa rural. But that is about a 33.8 kilometer day, which is a...
by Rob | Apr 11, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 18 – Grimaldo to Galisteo. Because of the heat of the day we had a pre dawn start from Grimaldo. It was going to be about a 20 kilometre day to Galisteo. The owner of the Casa Rural where we stayed the night before gave us some very good information about...
by Rob | Apr 12, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 19 – Galisteo to Jarilla. Today was yet another great day on the camino. It was a day where there were a few challenges and a few options. On this section walking between Galisteo and basically Aldeanueva del Camino we have a few challenges because...
by Rob | Apr 13, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VdlP Day 20 – Jarilla to Banos de Montemayor. Just 20 kms today. This day again had some options. I have to say it was a really good day’s walking. The staff in the Hostel Asturias gave us some information and some directions on walking the Via Verde. The...
by Rob | Apr 14, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VdlP Day 21 – Banos de Montemayor to La Calzada. A short day today just over 12 kilometres, it’s because of juggling the stages. Sometimes it’s a little bit of a challenge on the VDLP. You have to perhaps have a short day now and get on again on a...
by Rob | Apr 15, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 22 – La Calzada to Fuenterroble. Just 20 kms today. Fuenterroble is well known for the Donativo albergue run by Father Don Blas. So that was going to be an interesting end today. I was looking forward to seeing it. It was a pre-dawn start again because the...
by Rob | Apr 16, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Day 23 – Fuenterroble to San Pedro. A long day, 28 kms and over a mountain! It was a fairly early start today out of Fuenterroble. Initially on the road, but after that some wonderful tracks. A long section with a very slight rise going up on an old Roman road...
by Rob | Apr 17, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 24 – San Pedro to Salamanca – VdlP Camino Blog & Video So today wasn’t an overly long day (23.6 kilometres), but circumstances made it seem very long. To begin with, at the Casa Rural in San Pedro, they assured me that they would have...
by Rob | Apr 18, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 25 – Salamanca. A Camino rest day! I absolutely love the center of Salamanca. I’ll definitely be back! There’s a wonderful plaza mayor, with cafes all around the plaza. You could really spend your whole time just sitting there, but of course I did...
by Rob | Apr 19, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VdlP Day 26 – Salamanca to Calzada de Valdunciel. A fairly short day from Salamanca to Calzada de Valdunciel, just 16 kms. It was that or 36 kms. Nothing particularly remarkable, nice countryside, an open sort of landscape with fields and a couple of small...
by Rob | Apr 20, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 27 – Calzada de Valdunciel to El Cubo. 20.7 kms today. Well, a lot of people report that this particular day or ‘section’ is not a great one. I didn’t mind it actually. It was a great walking surface all day. Okay, it was very close to...
by Rob | Apr 21, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 28 – El Cubo to Villanueva de Campean This was a short day of just over 13 kilometres from El Cubo to Villanueva de Campean. The reason being it was one of those long stages again to go from El Cubo to Zamora, it would be almost 32 kilometres....
by Rob | Apr 22, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 29 – Villanueva de Campean to Zamora A short day of just over 18 kilometres from Villanueva de Campean to Zamora. In Zamora I will have another rest day because it seems like a nice place to spend some time. It was a good days walk. There was a little...
by Rob | Apr 23, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 30 – Zamora. A rest day! It is a fairly lazy day of walking around the inner part of the city, hanging out, and having a coffee in the Plaza Mayor. There are an amazing number of old churches in Zamora, and I think we probably looked at 8 or 9 of them...
by Rob | Apr 24, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 31 – Zamora to Montamarta Today was a fairly short day, 19 kilometres from Zamora to Montamarta. We left quite early from Zamora and managed to catch breakfast just on the edge of town. On the way out of Zamora it’s pretty much roads for 5 or 6...
by Rob | Apr 25, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Via de la Plata Day 32 – Montamarta to Granja to Benavente. Today was the walk from Montamarta to Granja, which had an interesting outcome. The walk was really nice. There was a great view over the embalse, fantastic scenery, and great walking surfaces. What was...
by Rob | Apr 26, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
Via de la Plata Day 33 – Benavente to Alija. Today was a fantastic day for walking. We managed to find a GPS track for the Via Verde or Camino Natural, which took us from the outside the albergue in Benavente practically all the way to Alija. And it was a...
by Rob | Apr 27, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VdlP Day 34 – Alija to La Bañeza The walk today was from Alija to La Bañeza. It was a glorious days walking of about 21 kms. It was mostly along dirt paths next to a river for most of the day, and we were very lucky that part of the way along we found a village...
by Rob | Apr 28, 2023 | Camino Via de la Plata, Journey, Videos
VDLP Day 35 – La Bañeza to Astorga. My last day on the Via de la Plata. This was 24 kilometres from La Bañeza to Astorga. It was the final day of the Via de la Plata. The Via de La Plata runs of course from Seville all the way north to Astorga. Most of the...
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