Publicado: 30.03.2026
...and again already about 200 km further north in Spain: The days flow vibrantly together filled with sun and wind... I hardly know how to convey to you an impression of all the mostly lonely paths and steps through vast land.
Until Merida, the landscape remained similar to what I described last: mainly olives, grapes, and wheat. The dark red earth often displaying very different hues, especially under changing clouds and sunshine, making all the green and red glow and transforming the otherwise rather monotonous flat landscape into a carpet of intense color play. Overall a flat agricultural landscape, consistently at elevations between 400 and 500; Merida is then at an elevation of 200m. Hour after hour on mostly wider gravel paths, taking breaks when there’s a shaded tree (fences often run alongside the path) or at a bar in one of the towns along the route; later laying the sleeping bag on the red earth between young olive trees as the sun sets glowing red. The moon (here the waxing crescent!) and stars (the Orion just above the horizon as it gets dark, soon disappearing) - and everything wet with dew in the morning. Packing up with clammy fingers at only 6 or 7°C and continuing to walk into the sunrise until warmth returns, reaching a place after perhaps 15 km where there’s hot tea available...
Since it has become quite cold (night temperatures now down to 4°C), I still mostly sleep in pilgrim hostels.
In Merida, it is again mainly the remnants of the Romans that impressively stand amid the present city. As a pedestrian, I enter the city picturesque over the venerable Roman bridge, a stone arch bridge over the Rio Guadiana; the pilgrim hostel sits down by the riverbank. Overall, it is tiring to wander through the city (and the actually famous large excavations can only be visited for a fee anyway), but then unexpectedly the temple of Diana rises between the houses. Or when leaving the city the next morning, shortly after sunrise, I pass by the impressive ruins of the aqueduct, parts of the water line that once supplied Emerita Augusta (today's Merida) with drinking water. Later I walk along a beautiful reservoir that (as far as I understand) was already dammed by the Romans; remnants of the old stone walls and pipeline systems are still visible. Incredibly the huge aqueduct arches - several with storks nesting on them - just like the temple and other remnants of massive structures, today right among the railway, roads, and residential houses of the modern city. Witnesses of a time when buildings could combine functionality with style, beauty, and harmony, not to mention the purely natural building materials like stone and fired bricks. I have a respect and somewhat of an awe for this skill... Often the course of the hiking trail also obviously actually follows the route of the ancient Roman road, evidenced by for example old bridges and repeatedly milestones: tall, round 'columns' in different stages of weathering.
Of course, I walk many kilometers alongside roads, either directly on the roads or quite close by. Not always pleasant in the sun and car noise and often tiring, but as it simply belongs to it, I do not mind too much, often singing or getting so lost in thought that I hardly notice how the kilometers pass... All the more beautiful are then the lonely paths in nature (I already mentioned that the highway often echoes far into the surrounding landscape), often in an almost unbelievable silence - only birds can be heard then or (at noon) not even those, just the wind and my own footsteps...
After Merida it goes back up to 450 - 500 m altitude. There are often beautiful stretches of path through rolling landscapes, grazed oak groves (here always cork oaks or holm oaks), often also with large rocks amidst all the green and blooming; all the calves, foals, and lambs are always a joy to observe in this season. Black storks and indeed so many birds again! Many stone walls, then again olive trees, eucalyptus, and pines. In between, broom in fiery yellow, a type of white-flowering small flowered broom, lavender (with larger and much darker flowers than the well-known 'Provence lavender'); then again whole carpets of daisies or smaller yellow flowers, red grasses, orchids - in our region I practically only know dandelion meadows, here it is as if every meadow has its own color carpet... and the smaller watercourses, lakes, puddles are covered with a veil of very white, delicate 'mini water lilies' - beautiful. Two days ago, there were so many extremely small purple stars on the stony path (not even half a cm in diameter, but each with exactly 5 petals around a yellow center) that the paths simply shimmered purple (since the flowers were so small that they couldn't even be recognized from a distance).
Often mountains on the horizon (foothills of the Sierra Morena among others) - when (two days ago) behind Caceres the view opened onto an infinitely wide, misty area, snowy peaks could be seen in the distance to the northwest (Picos de Europa? Could I really see that far?) Today I walked for a while through a landscape full of rockrose bushes, although only a few blooms were open, most still full of tightly closed buds - I try to imagine what it looks like when they all bloom!
There are already quite a few pilgrims on the way. Since I don’t really stick to the 'normal' stages, I repeatedly encounter new groups in the hostels (or sometimes have one to myself). A man over 70 years old from Japan is on pilgrimage in a group with a German pensioner, a Spaniard, an Australian, and a young Italian, who found each other here and now stay together; in Casar de Caceres, besides H. from Germany, whom I had previously met, I encountered a funny American woman, a young Austrian, women from Belgium and the Netherlands, and of course more Spaniards. I have also already encountered a group of four from Colorado, USA and Switzerland - so international... When 10, 12, or more peregrinos sleep in a hostel, one meets again during the day, wishes each other ‘buen camino!’ or walks a bit together; overall it spreads out well; I often set out very early or sleep, as I did last night, outside, or also walk over 30 km, so I am often ‘offset’ from most others; I consciously look for the smaller (cheaper) hostels that are indeed ‘offset’ from the most chosen stages. It is nice to talk in the evening together with others in a mix of English and other languages; it feels good to meet several times and learn more about each other than just where one comes from... it is beautiful to unexpectedly meet A. again at the cathedral in Caceres, a pilgrim from Ireland whom I met in the first nights after Sevilla, who then moved on faster (and is now on her way home again from Caceres) - but it's also good to be alone... Only the path, the wind, the sky, and I - thus walking becomes more and more a ‘meditative necessity’. Getting up, walking, sleeping, getting up, walking, sleeping... this has long since become the normal life again - and all the many sensory impressions, sunshine and wind, physical movement, the constant outdoor experience make me so tired that I have no problem lying in my sleeping bag for 12 hours, as I did last night. Yesterday's route went by the large Tajo reservoir. Scenically beautiful; I just stayed outside, even though I knew it would be cold. The constant strong wind, in particular, cools and it was predicted to be 4°C in the early morning hours. But I did not regret it; sunset over the lake, silence, stars, and the already quite full moon - so beautiful!! It wasn’t exactly warm, but I wasn’t cold and actually slept until the sun had already risen again. Today, on Monday morning, however, there was also traffic from the nearby road, yet the further path was beautifully lonely, sunny, but cold and windy. Grimalda, a handful of houses with a bar and a small hostel, somewhat off the main path, lies again at about 500m elevation.
All day I met no one, went through no town, fortunately found both drinking water spots marked on the map this time; spoke the only words with the man in the bar here, to get the key to the hostel... and fortunately, I was here around half past three, so I got a tortilla (potato omelette) before the siesta, since there haven’t been any shopping opportunities in the past two days...
