Thursday November 20th 2014 Villanueva de Campéan 35 km.

Caption id = “attachment_3118” align = “align none” width = “300”] a lot of Roman milares, milestones in a row. So you have to be lost hit a lot of Roman milares, milestones, in a row. Very confusing if you want to find your way on the Via de la Plata

Ik hoop dat niet dit de herberg is

 I hope this is not the inn 

Today was a long day, after a heavy night. The Spaniard in our hostel was like a bomber from WW2. Incredibal snoring. I wanted to look for shelter. Therefore stepped in the middle of the night out of my bunk bed with the intention to move my mattress with bedding to the living room, to sleep on the floor there with Tosca. But the mattress was hard, there was a ladder to the top bunk above me, so moving the mattrassin the dark would be very difficult. So I accepted the suffering. Tosca stretched out on the couch in the living room to digest the masses pork chops remaining from our meals, that we had saved for her. What a life for a dog.
In the morning I said goodbye to Plien and Rob with a sad heart and off we go, on the road again, along with the roaring Spaniard. I walked faster than he did and during his first break I decided to walk on. The village where he was going to sleep tonight I skipped and I walked another 13 km. That’s a good night’s sleep worth.                                                                                            In that village I did some afternoon shopping and wanted to eat lunch in a park. A nasty old man said I could not leave a horse there on the grass. I said I have to refuel here, or do you want me to eat along the dangerous road? In my phantasy I saw him standing with his bayonet in the 30s, side by side with Franco. But when some later I walked on, I met him again and he told me that I was on the wrong way. He helped me and he was right.
After 35 km. I arrived in Villanueva de Campéan, almost dark. The phone numbers of the two inns that I called did not answer, all were closed and after an investigation of the village I ended up in a luxurous posada, the interior very elegant, with antique plates in the old cupboards and cabinets, which I am not allowed to use, full heating which is not turned on, twin Jumaux beds, big enough for 4 pers., for 27 E incl. breakfast. All a complete waste for me, but the alternative of spending the night outside in winter is not very attractive. Leon is under a roof with little food and so is Tosca. Such luxury, the opposite of yesterday. Tomorrow awaits me a monstrous tour of more than 30 km. and that with may be not well groomed animals. Let’s see how that will work out. Home alone, a lonely ranger, lonely and alone with the elements. That’s what I had asked for. But it’s no fun.
Further thanks everyone for the nice comments, suggestions etc.
Jan K  in Nijmegen: I’d like to tease about the Romans and which is the oldest city in the Netherlands:
Limburg, which is less than 200 km. away from Trier, the capital of the northern part of the Roman Empire, our Limburg region as a whole was romanized. There are several Roman bath houses below (Lemiers, Vaals) and above (Heerlen) the soil and everywhere remains of Roman villas and in the southeast corner of the Limburg where we live, many toponyms remind of the romanisation. Your Nijmegen may have been the home of a garrison of Roman soldiers or something, but was not it Julius Caesar, or who was it again, gritting his teeth with anger at the Valkhof, because Nijmegen didn’t want to learn speaking Latin? In any case, the Nijmegen region was not romanized. In the 4th century our Maastricht already had its bishop, Servatius. Nn the 6th century the Irish missionaries Willibrord and Boniface, who from Echternach in Luxemburg were sent to the savages in the north of the Netherlands, were murdered in Dokkum. While the South of our country had been having civilization for centuries,  in the north they still ate missionaries, in Dokkum, the cannibals. This is a free interpretation of a number of historical facts, with which I usually get a discussion going. Jan K, especially for you. Tomorrow I have to get up early, so into the puce.

Geef uw mening

*