We left the hotel about 8:30 and the first place we came to was the Roman Bridge. I took a few photos to document the start of our trip as we crossed the Rio Minos.
There was an interesting modern bridge in the distance. The roadway goes straight across and the curved area that goes both below the roadbed in the middle and high above the roadbed on both ends is a walkway that allows you to climb both under and above the roadway for views.
It took us more than an hour to make the six or so kilometers to get out of the city, all on sidewalks or paved streets. We were then on a paved country road that included a 19% grade for about two kilometers that got us up nearly 1,000 feet in elevation - it was quite a climb. We then got onto level ground and after a couple more kilometers, finally left paved road for a dirt road. This lead us to a very small village Reguengo and stopped around noon at Casa Cesar, La Parada del Peregrino. We met the caretaker Cesar. He had been in the Spanish military at age 18 and 19, then spent 40 years driving for the Eurobus tour company going as far east as Moscow. He had just retired and only two weeks earlier had celebrated his 60th birthday. He had many mementos and photos of visitors. He put on a demonstration of how to make the quemada. He used grappa (like brandy), sugar and lemon rind, and then showed how to burn off some of the alcohol. I had seen quemadas many times at Vaughan Town and Pueblo Ingles, but this was a first for Patty. All the prior times had coffee beans as well as these ingredients, but with no coffee, I found the taste to be much better. He then explained in broken English about his 14 herbs and how he used natural ingredients to distill his own liquor which we also had to sample. After an hour of chatting and consuming these two alcoholic beverages, we set out again. We walked for another three hours and finally arrived in the town of Cea. We sat down at a local bar and called Casa Casarellos, per our instructions from Camino
Ways. The only problem was they did not speak English; fortunately, they put on someone who did and were told we would be picked up in about 15 minutes. So we sat and enjoyed our cold beer, day one and 22 kilometers completed.
It was a short ride to Casa Casarellos - it was an outstanding rural inn. We had an excellent, large private room. At dinner, we found out that there were only three other guests, one couple from Great Britain and a lone hiker also from Great Britain. We had a great dinner and called it a day.
There was an interesting modern bridge in the distance. The roadway goes straight across and the curved area that goes both below the roadbed in the middle and high above the roadbed on both ends is a walkway that allows you to climb both under and above the roadway for views.
It took us more than an hour to make the six or so kilometers to get out of the city, all on sidewalks or paved streets. We were then on a paved country road that included a 19% grade for about two kilometers that got us up nearly 1,000 feet in elevation - it was quite a climb. We then got onto level ground and after a couple more kilometers, finally left paved road for a dirt road. This lead us to a very small village Reguengo and stopped around noon at Casa Cesar, La Parada del Peregrino. We met the caretaker Cesar. He had been in the Spanish military at age 18 and 19, then spent 40 years driving for the Eurobus tour company going as far east as Moscow. He had just retired and only two weeks earlier had celebrated his 60th birthday. He had many mementos and photos of visitors. He put on a demonstration of how to make the quemada. He used grappa (like brandy), sugar and lemon rind, and then showed how to burn off some of the alcohol. I had seen quemadas many times at Vaughan Town and Pueblo Ingles, but this was a first for Patty. All the prior times had coffee beans as well as these ingredients, but with no coffee, I found the taste to be much better. He then explained in broken English about his 14 herbs and how he used natural ingredients to distill his own liquor which we also had to sample. After an hour of chatting and consuming these two alcoholic beverages, we set out again. We walked for another three hours and finally arrived in the town of Cea. We sat down at a local bar and called Casa Casarellos, per our instructions from Camino
Ways. The only problem was they did not speak English; fortunately, they put on someone who did and were told we would be picked up in about 15 minutes. So we sat and enjoyed our cold beer, day one and 22 kilometers completed.
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