Day 2 Cerro Muriano to Villaharta - 21.4 kms

The French and I enjoyed a delicious dinner at Bar X last night - 3 course menu del peregrino for 9 euros. And our host Angel (real name Juan Jose) opened a seriously good bottle of Rioja vino tinto. Juan Jose sat with us for a time. Between his iPad and google translate and our limited Spanish we managed to have a lively conversation of sorts.

We set out at 8 this morning - the higher altitude meant a much colder morning. I had my icebreaker gloves on for first two hours. But soon after, t-shirt weather. An uneventful and easy walk today with nothing remarkable about the landscape so not many photos. But we were thankful for more training for what's coming up - tomorrow it's 38 kms to the next town with two river crossings included just for fun! We've read that if it hasn't rained for a few days (thankfully it hasn't) the water should not be above our knees. I hope that's an exaggeration - surely - and the rivers are really just streams or, better yet, dry creek beds.

Back to today. We arrived in Villaharta around 1pm and had soon organised our 'habitaciones' at the Bar Mirasierra - a comfortable room for 15 euros per person, another recommendation from our friend Pierre. We have a large sunny terrace great for drying our washing! Another short day has given us plenty of time for our daily laundry ritual - and for me to manage a reasonable diary entry, despite the technology challenges now that my Blogger app is in a state of disrepair.

Our hospitalero here is also known as Angel - not sure if that's his real name. Probably not, but I can imagine why he may have earned that nickname. With the long stretch to the next town, Angel told us that there is a statue about half way - nothing more. If we don't want to continue, he or a taxi service will come to pick us up and bring us back to Villaharta for the night and take us back in the morning to continue on our Way.

Angel doesn't speak English. We understood what he was saying only thanks to the notes Pierre sent us where he mentions this 'service' that Angel regularly offers to peregrinos who can't or don't want to make this stage in one day. And it's good for business too - with peregrinos returning for another night's accommodation. There are not a lot of pilgrims on the Mozarabe so it's a happy outcome for Angel and his family and for weary walkers.

Hopefully we won't need to be rescued - we have walked that sort of distance before but not for a while and anything can happen on the day. But we have the phone numbers and are happy to have this 'lifeline' just in case.

Hasta luego.

J x

Day 1 Cordoba to Cerro Muriano - 18 kms

It was exciting to walk out of Cordoba this morning - our first day back on The Way since the Camino del Norte last year, when we arrived in Bilbao after 42 days of walking.  Just 9 degrees when we left Hotel Mezquita but the temperature climbed quickly and it was shorts and t-shirts just an hour later. Sunshine all day.

There are few towns along the Mozarabe, and today a choice of 18 or 39 kms - not really a choice. We haven't carried our packs for almost a year. We need to walk our way back into this!

As is often the case leaving a large town, the first hour or so was through uninspiring urban outskirts, with easy to miss signs. We managed to add a couple of kms to the official 18 by backtracking when we twice missed the arrows. But we were soon on quiet rural paths and a steady climb for the last few hours. All in all an excellent and much needed training day with a timely reminder to watch for the Camino signs. No biggie adding kms on a short distance but there are a few long days ahead and The French and I have a track record of making short days long and long days even longer.

Pierre if you see this post, we are happily settled in a lovely room (40 euro for 2) in Bar X. Even with our limited Spanish it was clear from his big smile that the tres gentil hospitalero Angel remembers you well. Merci pour le recommendation and all the other information you gave us.

The bar restaurant downstairs has an inviting atmosphere and seems to be popular with the locals. We are looking forward to our menu del peregrino tonight. I wonder if there will be any other pilgrims there. We didn't see any along The Way.

J x

An early finish today has given me time to wrangle the technology and write more than I thought I would manage. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Camino Mozarabe - Cordoba to Merida

It's Thursday and early morning in Cordoba. Almost time to begin and, as has been the case with every Camino, a mixture of excitement, anticipation and a little anxiety. Fingers crossed all will go well.

Our path for the next 9-10 days - around 250 kms to Merida.

Sevilla and Cordoba

And so our adventures have begun. And already the last words from my first post - plans are made to be changed - have come to pass.

The French and I flew from Paris to Seville on Tuesday morning, to clear blue skies and warm sunshine. And the same again today in Cordoba, where we arrived by train this afternoon. We love both of these towns - where we spent some time in May 2015 - and in these two days, we have loved the ease that familiarity brings as you stroll through the narrow streets and laneways - and the delight of rediscovering and discovering. The colour, the style, the informality, the food and the wine. Everything really!

But not all has been as expected. Last night when I attempted to write my first diary entry I had all sorts of problems with the blogger app, problems that I'd never encountered before and I've been using it since 2011. No problem uploading photos - and hopefully that will continue. But a 'bug' in the app caused my blog to crash without saving any time I tried to edit or correct words already written. Ugghh.

A google search soon identified the problem. The blogger app is no longer supported so there are no more updates or bug fixes. There is a work around solution using a browser for writing and the app for uploading photos - which is how I'm doing this post. But it's time consuming, cumbersome, unfriendly and frustrating - and quickly turns an enjoyable pastime into a chore.

So my plans have changed - at least for my blogs on this trip. I expect I'll keep uploading photos, but most likely with not much of a story. Perhaps I will write my diary separately - offline.  And maybe when I get home I'll go back and put the words and pictures together. Though that seems like a daunting project. As The French likes to say, nous verrons ca - we'll see that.

In the meantime, to anyone who has followed my earlier blogs and has enjoyed reading the words - desolee, lo siento, sorry - seems it will be mostly pictures this time. On that note, here are a few from our two first days in Seville and Cordoba including our charrming hotels - Casa del Maestro in Seville and Hotel Mezquita in Cordoba.

Tomorrow, the Camino Mozarabe. Nous marchons. We walk.

Hasta luego.

Jenny and Domi

Sevilla

Cordoba