After Mass and breakfast, leaving Calzada, saying farewell to our friendly hospitalero Oscar, we immediately took the bridge over the stream and in to the Via de la Plata. After my experiences with streams along the way, I was rather glad that the stepping stones, which are on show next to the stream, have been replaced by a bridge. Some of the stepping stones were obviously taken from original Roman mileposts, because of their shape.
The pathway today was mostly gravel and pressed earth, mostly flat but undulating especially towards the end. The weather was sunny and quite warm, with the temperature rising above 20 degrees.
There were very few features on the way. A little chapel was about the only thing. I managed to contain my excitement over passing into a new province - Zamora - having walked the length of Salamanca. It is also a new diocese. It makes this the fifth province (Seville, Badajoz, Cáceres, Salamanca, Zamora) and sixth diocese (Seville, Mérida-Badajoz, Coria-Cáceres, Plasencia, Salamanca, Zamora) to walk in.
The end of today's walk is the village of El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino, to give it its full name. Literally it means "the bucket of the land of wine". While this may sound like an invitation to a lack of sobriety, one has to understand the origin of the name. Cubo probably originally referred to a tower. And the land of wine to the fact that historically this was a place of wine production. A bout of phylloxera in the nineteenth century wiped out the vines and they have never returned. The town also might be the Roman town of Sabaria. The welcome was warm as we arrived at the Albergue, greeted by hospitaleros Berto and Loli. I have heard how great a cook Loli is, so look forward to dinner tonight.
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