We both slept well in our delightful pensión and made a reasonably early start after breakfast around the corner at the churreria, although opting for toast and coffee as churros seem more suited to a lazy day that a walking day. As we took leave of our kind host, she told us to call her if we had any troubles on the trail—an offer that was so genuine and touching.
Part of the reason for the short day yesterday was to enable us to go beyond the next usual stop at Doña Mencía to get to the hilltop pueblo blanco (white town) of Zuheros. We’d enjoyed a couple of days there in 2016, renting bikes and riding on the Vía Verde. Since this was my birthday eve, I’d decided on a return visit to celebrate.
It wasn’t too far to get back to the Vía Verde and another lovely walking day. Being Sunday there were lots of cyclists out riding and around each town lots of walkers as well. But we were the only pilgrims, having lost pace with the Estonians with our rest day in Antequera and our relaxed schedule. We knew this camino would be quiet, but it was quieter than we’d anticipated.
The Vía Verde meant more amenities so there were picnic tables in a few places, welcome for a snack break. This section also had deeper cut-aways in the stone, reminding us of its railway origin, which made it lovely and cool. There was also one long tunnel, where I hugged the wall as I wasn’t sure how visible we’d be to the oncoming cyclists. The station at Doña Mencía is now bustling with a caravan park right on the Vía Verde and a playground as well as the bike rental we’d remembered.
A couple of kilometres beyond Doña Mencía , we saw a sign for Zuheros on the PR-A442 trail and decided to take that route, since it was about the same distance. It was a beautiful trail, cool and lush and brought us in a little higher, actually having to descend somewhat before our final steep climb into the village. And it is as wonderful as we’d remembered. Not a surprise that it is considered one of Andalucia’s most beautiful villages.
We checked into the fabulous Hotel Zuhayra (€65 twin including breakfast) and had time for showers before our 3:00 lunch reservation—we were lucky to score a table. We feasted on the wonderful salad I’d remembered (with carmelized goat’s cheese), a revuelto (egg scramble) with wild mushrooms, asparagus and smoked salmon and berenjenas con miel (fried eggplant with molasses) , wrapping up with an amazing chocolate mousse torte and hazelnut praline dessert (since we were treating this as my birthday lunch one day early). All excellent and with lovely service.
Then we were able to squeeze in a visit to the 9th century castle with its impressive location and expansive views, the tiny archaeology museum which includes Neolithic artifacts from the nearby Cuevas de los Murciélagos and the Museo de Costumbres (ethnography, not costumes as I’d mistranslated when seeing the name!) all in one €4 ticket. The Cuevas de los Murciélagos themselves will have to wait until another trip (a good excuse for another return visit!).
We ended the day with a light supper back in our hotel dining room. The Sunday afternoon crowds at large tables were replaced by couples and singletons of foreigners, like us, staying in the hotel. And after the noisy lunchtime almost eerily quiet. At lunch we’d been seated next to a table of twelve with the six children at the end nearest to us. I wondered how relaxing that would be, but they were way more quiet - most happily drawing – than their six adults! And after all, I do love the tradition of these long lingering meals and the fact that kids are a welcome part of it so I just need to let go of my Canadian preconceived notions.
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