Cáceres

Set out in driving rain but by 9am it stopped, and by 11 was even reunited briefly with my shadow, as I crossed a handsome low Roman bridge over the Rio Salor. 

After a cup of coffee and a magdalena at a service station in Valdesalor (not one that would have set Proust out on his 10,000 pages, but welcome anyway) it was back en route and over the hill into Cáceres, where I arrived shortly after 1pm, having covered 27km.  It would have been perfectly possible to carry on to Casar de Cáceres 12km further north, but Cáceres is a beautiful city that I’m unlikely ever to pass through again, so it seemed silly not to have a look round while I’m here.  In fact all I previously knew about Cáceres was thanks to Tesco’s – for a couple of years at least, their most drinkable cheap red wine was called the Marqués de Cáceres, although I never expected to visit his beautiful home city.

The Bishop's palace in Cáceres

Spent the night in the very comfortable Hotel Iberia, just off the Plaza Mayor (they do a pilgrim discount - €30 B&B).  And saw the moon - a newish one - for the first time since I caught the last slither of the waning one early one morning in Monesterio a week.  I'm hoping this moon with see me into Santiago.