Sunday was rather uneventful. We hiked 24.5 km from Calzadilla de los Hermanillos to Mansilla de las Mulas. One point of interest along the hike was the Roman road that dates back over 2,000 years that we traveled on. The second picture in this set is of a section of that road. Not all of it was always there, and the parts that were there were pretty bumpy on the feet. Still, it was pretty cool to walk across something that has been in use that long.
The first picture is from dinner on Sept 13. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called La Casa el Cura. The owners were very nice. Actually, the husband (Leo) was quite a character. He had a ton of energy and lots of stories. And he was also the cook, and made an excellent dinner. The people in the picture on the right are Don, Kim and their son Spencer. They are from Charlotte, NC, and they have travelled all around the world, so they have great stories to tell as well. We have bumped into them multiple times, and probably will continue to, as we seem to be on the same itinerary. The woman on the left is Melena. She is from Brazil, and this was the first time we met her, but she joined right in with all of the frivolity. As fate would have it, we ran into her again on Sept 14, at the place where we were staying (as were Don, Kim and Spencer, all unplanned). Unfortunately, the place was fully booked so she had to find another place to stay, but I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into her again.
The third picture is of one of the entrances into Mansilla de las Mulas. It is called the Arco de Santa Maria. And the fourth picture is of a large section of the wall that used to protect this village. The wall and the entryway date back to the 12th century, so again, pretty amazing that these things are still standing. One other event that was of interest from Sunday: as we were on the outskirts of Mansilla de las Mulas, we came across a group who was racing their dogs out in the open fields. The dogs looked similar to greyhounds, with perhaps a slightly smaller chest. When Linda asked what kind of dogs they were, the person she was talking to (who owned one of these dogs) said they were Spanish dogs. He didn't provide any breed name, and when Linda suggested Greyhounds, he adamantly said "no", that they were Spanish dogs. Anyway, watching them race was really interesting. They were extremely fast, and it was all done in a wide open area. They chased after a piece of cloth that was wrapped around some straw, and there was a truck with a winch that pulled this stuffed thing across the field. Linda took a video, but I don't think I can upload it to the blog because of the amount of memory space it would require. I originally had 4 pictures for the Sept 13 blog, but could not upload it at 3 different places because of a "network error". When I deleted one of the photos, then I was able to upload, so I guess there is a pretty low threshold for how much I can put out there at one time.
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