Espanha, aqui estamos!

After a hot night in Valenca 😜 temperature-wise, I had a more restless night than Monika. We also wanted to start a bit earlier than usual today because when crossing the International Bridge from Valenca to TUI, the clock needs to be adjusted as well. For a pilgrim, that means arriving later or leaving earlier. We chose the latter. After a quite unimpressive breakfast in a even less impressive dining room and a dreary view of a barren backyard, it was easy to set off... across the bridge and voila... it's already 9:00 am.😰. The first two thirds of today's journey were quite easy for us. The landscape was beautiful. Through forests, past streams, over old, small bridges. Simply enchanting. We gathered delicious figs and grapes from both sides of the path. We stopped at a lovely private garden which had been transformed into a café by the family with much love. Here we also met many pilgrim groups we already knew: six girls, who are unmistakably from Berlin and who we feel sorry for because of their heavy backpacks. Two young couples and a group of three from France: an older man and two older women. His name is Claude. Poor Claude is always being searched for and called. He probably intentionally hides from them along the way because he can't stand the two women anymore, who - as we think - are quite exhausting and speak to everyone in French without realizing that no one understands them. Anyway. People just keep asking them for directions, how many kilometers there are to this or that place, and occasionally they search for Claude... of course, again in French. We haven't figured out yet how the three of them are connected. We don't want to ask them either... otherwise, they'll stick to us... 😬. But it always makes us laugh a lot when we encounter Claude sitting alone somewhere and he obviously enjoys his peace. The last third of our journey was unfortunately quite disillusioning: 6 kilometers of dusty country road without shade. Our Karin from the navigation system was also unfortunately very disoriented and led us in completely the wrong direction through a very questionable area in the suburbs of Oporrino. Somehow, Navi-Karin couldn't find the address we had given her for our rented apartment for tonight. The last 350 m that we thought we had left suddenly became 750 again. 😬. In the end, it turned out to be 1.3 km. Annoying. It's frustrating so close to the goal. We then entered the first supermarket and grabbed some water because it was also all gone, just like our batteries. And so, we finally reached our destination. It's not so bad that a few things from my Spanish studies stuck with me. Our apartment is in the middle of the old town. Newly restored, very nicely done, and compensated with a soft bed for the 22 km we walked today in 32 degrees Celsius. We are happy!