Pre Pantographs

The invention of the pantograph marked a defining time in human development. Pantographs are used on the TGV, its peers and precursors. They enabled the development of widespread cost-effective fast electrified railway networks and in doing so facilitated the flourishing of socially cohesive Nation States. Look at France and Germany. Italy gets the idea. So does Spain but public life and wealth is different here. All basically publicly owned rail networks. The English invented the railway, but they are, well, English. At the time of the retirement of the "Flying Scotsman" there was no longer seen by the English to be a need for cohesion with Scotland and their railways are not up to the same standard. The Russians did the Trans-Siberian with the same thought but without pantographs, and see!

2,000 years ago there were City States - Nation States being a very recent development. For City States water supply was a critical service and dams and aqueducts the enabling technologies. This aqueduct and this dam are both 2,000 years old. Amazingly the dam has been in almost continuous service since it was built. They were built to serve Emeritus Merita (present day Merida).

The Romans  were good.

The photo of the aqueduct was taken well before sunrise as I began what was to be a long and defining day in my journey.

Technical Tolerance

You could imagine this blog as a chapter of my life, each blog post a paragraph, of course containing sentences, some of words whilst some sentences are images.

I would prefer to control the sequence of sentences, and indeed the paragraphs. In previous travels I have done just that on my iPad. However on this walking journey I am using this Apple 🍎 clone. Whilst small and light and of goodish quality as clones go, not one of the Apple clones works properly.

Perhaps I can remind you, in mobile gadgets there are only 2 categories: Apple products, and not good enough clones. There is no other type. Even for desktops, IBM (the creator of the PC being an attempt to rival the Apple II computer) now uses Apple Macs and is reportedly about to be the largest corporate user of Macs. But I digressed.

The software on this clone (ie using Android developed by Google) does not allow me a convenient way to sequence my sentences (layout photos), size photos or the column width, or indeed a way to re-arrange my paragraphs, even though Google wrote the App and the Blogging platform.

I rely on your ability to make sense from the sequence in which the blog appears. Perhaps if you double click on the photos they will become enlarged.

Who was this lady?

It doesn't matter.

Also in Plaza

Don't get between a grandmother and her grandson

In the Plaza whilst having lunch

Some Impromptu Dancing in the Street

The Italian

Whilst ambling around Merida this man appeared and I said "Buen Camino". He was most joyous and we had a chat - he, his woman, and I.

As you can see, he has an alternative to a backpack. There is a sturdy padded belt with attachments on each side for the handles of the trailer. One of a few variations I have seen over the years.

On Flow

The other day I walked 28 km, mostly straight on Roman road, and mostly through vineyards, to Torremejia (about which no more need be said).

After nearly 200 km the body gets into a sort of rhythm, the legs just moving, the arms and walking poles in smooth sync. After all, there was not much else.

I was reminded of "Flow", a book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Cafe Culture

For a few days I have been starting my days at the local bars, before dawn.

These are active places, men only, the farm workers getting ready for the day. They are in the field, pruning vineyards or weeding mostly at the moment.

In the dark their motorbikes or tractors are parked in the street. Their choice of coffee is not like the diverse choices of Melbourne. Flat whites but with half steamed milk and a dash of cold full cream or light milk to take the edge off the temperature. A cup of ouzo and a glass of iced water. Of course the the barman knows all their specific needs.

They make me feel welcome. They can see what I am doing.

Soon they will be alone for the morning spread across the plains of Spain for the morning then home for lunch and a siesta.

One of the days I walked alone for 28 km, 28 km of mostly vineyards, perhaps nearly 20 km dead straight along the Roman road, to a town that was the pits - Torremejia.

Merida a day beyond.

Merida

I walked into Merida, an important Roman City with good surviving ruins, across this bridge, 800 m long.

Near me were 2 people carrying their Jehovah's Witness pamphlets. The Romans would have been aghast. When the bridge was built the romans idolised the Emperor, statues bearing evidence.

The Jehovah's Witness people would have been harshly dealt with at the gate to Emeritus Merita.

Zurbaran 2

His most famous speciality for which he received many commissions was of the Immaculate Conception.

Zurbaran

Zurbaran was a Master Painter in 17 th century Spain, born in Fuente de Cantos. There is a small gallery in the house where he was born.

He had 2 specialties - one was still life.

Reflection from the start on Day 1

Striding out of Seville on a quiet Sunday morning.

Bearded Bear from Brittany

Another in the previous photo.

The Russian-speaking German woman Christina (temporarily recuperating from bad blisters) from Leipzig called him a bear. The ever-changing flower was a distinguishing feature.

He, and all the others, have now moved on, perhaps never to be seen again.

The Peripatetic Pixie from Perpignon

The photo shows 3 French people just in front of me. The closest is a woman from Perpignon.

People's walking styles can be quite different.  Some just walk, others plod, struggle, stride, race, waddle, saunter, and on it goes. This woman from southern France, near Spain - Perpignon - just moved effortlessly, light of foot.

Homeless for a while like the rest of us - our Peripatetic Pixie from Perpignon.

Today is a rest day

A rest day every week or so is a good idea. I am staying in the convent Albergue in Fuente de Cantos for a second night. All the others have continued north, and so far no strangers have appeared.

20 walkers one day, none the next. A day of solitude.

Along the Via de la Plata

Notice the wire frame pilgrims.

On the way to El Real de la Jara

This is Iberico black pig country. From the good properties the jamon Iberico (ham) can sell for 200 Euros more or less per kg.

Happy pigs allow some pig farmers to live happily in good houses.

Days 2 and 3 and 4

Day 2 to Castilblanco de Los Arroyos, 20 kms, ok, day 3 to Almaden de la Plata was 29 kms and a bit long for early in the trip. Some of the walkers, now what appears to be a roving troop of 20 or so doing similar distances each day.

Day 4 was only short at 14 km to El Real de la Jara and we mostly arrived early. The long day 3 previously obviously was now telling with a quite a few mentioning fatigue - the dominant language of the roving troop was French.

Much beer and wine was enjoyed to celebrate Silvio's birthday. He is the French Canadian walking 1,200 km from Cadiz to Santiago without a hat in preparation for his impending marriage in July to a French woman.

The Via de la Plata - day 1

My excursion at the moment is to walk from Seville to Salamanca, about half way to the famed Santiago de la Compostella. The usual accommodation along the way is pilgrim's Albergues. Bookings are rare and on other routes sometimes a rush to ensure a bed.

Day 1, Sunday 17th was my introduction to assertive marketing, not just the usual signs along the track describing the features of the Albergues.

Whilst walking towards Guillena 20 kms from Seville a motorcycle came along the track and the multilingual rider said the track into town to the right was impassable across the river so take the left turn and it was also shorter. A few minutes later a car came along and said someone was telling lies saying the municipal Albergue was closed while it was actually not closed and please come.

mmm? What to make of this?

We ( I was walking with Corgnelius the Dutchman) took the bike rider's advice and turned left and soon we were greeted by his mother waiting in the street with smiling welcome directing us to her place - Albergue Luz.

If we had followed the normal path we would have crossed the river and soon come across the Albergue Municipal, but we were seduced by Madam Luz's charms, and it was a good place.

The Courtyard of the Catedral in Seville

Many people come to admire the Catedral of Seville. The interior is much photographed, and this silhouette was admiring the view from the outside.

A very large wooden structure in Seville

Effectively just a very expensive sculpture, way over budget, and reputedly the largest timber structure in the known world. Seville has many legacies to its time when the vast gold and silver wealth flowed through its port in the 16 th century.

Pantograph lesson 2

Lesson 1 about pantographs occurred between Prague and Dresden and will not be repeated.

Near the Catedral in Seville the visual impact of overhead wires for their trams was not acceptable. So in the photograph you will notice a tram with its pantograph touching a short overhead rod, perhaps 5 metres long, which the pantograph extends to and touches for about 30 seconds whilst passengers get on and off. The pantograph then retracts and the tram moves on to the next tramstop.

It only takes about 20 seconds to recharge the "super capacitors" providing sufficient energy for 1 km.

Cordoba

On my way to Seville, I spent a few days in Cordoba and visited a Palace. The gardens are impressive and still immaculately maintained.

One of the photos shows the horse ring and stables where that night I attended an equestrian event with fine Spanish horses, horsemen, a  woman Flamenco dancer, and chariots.

Grange

I am taking my time in Cordoba, as we are experiencing a heatwave, high 30s, 40 Wednesday, and this is a city designed for the heat. The Islamic Mezquite with its exquisitely inserted Christian Catedral is well known as the central attraction. For those who like to avoid the crowds its is open for free for 1 hr from 8:30 whilst most are having breakfast. It then re-opens "officially" at 10:00.

This region of Spain, or a little west, is home to pigs from which the "Grange of hams" is produced. Both a rich red, finest ingredients, great skill and experience and a long maturation time. It is named Jamon Iberico.

Jamon Iberico is thinly iced and I assumed only consumed with the finest vino tinto. But no, here in Cordoba with its extraordinarily long history of gastronomy and wealth, including being a major source of wine for Rome at its height, Jamon Iberico at some restaurants is advertised with Coca-Cola.

I am reminded of some of the rich of Shanghai (is it 4 or 5 Lamborghinis that I own, I can't remember) who have said they mix their Grange with Coke to improve the taste.

Chrysalis

The QATAR Boeing 777 capsule transported me to Spain. After emerging in Madrid I then discarded my bedraggled flight clothing, now obsolete, and an unnecessary burden for the rest of my travels, or indeed my life. The ability to fly in once desired, but now threadbare clothing is a luxury of travelling alone, for to travel in such clothes may cause embarrassment in a companion. It is hardly likely all the others travelling in the confines of economy class would have noticed in our collective state of discomfort.

At the Hostal Molles, like a pupa, my belongings expanded from their in-flight configuration, my walking poles unfurled. I now have the personna of a pilgrim - "a person in a foreign land".

And so begins 6 weeks in southern Spain, for me a land more exotic than most of Western Europe, and at the moment more alluring than any other. In its own way a blend of European, Eastern and North African that many many many before me have come to experience.

During the flight, in a form of 24 hours of suspended animation, I read "A Philosophy of Walking" by Frederic Gros, a French philosopher of some note. My copy will be discarded in an Albergue soon, as is the pilgrim's way. I am likely to quote from him in future posts. As his linguistic style, and those he in turn quotes from, even after translation, exceeds mine it will be apparent where due attribution is implicit.

For those who walk, or not, I commend it to you all - my walking mentor (N) recommended it recently to me.

Now in Cordoba. We are experiencing a heat wave.