16 km Torremegia to Merida

Being a relatively short day, we didn't hit the trail until 10:30 and still arrived around 3 with breaks and lunch along the way. The trail, though keeping true to the buried Roman calzada, didn't pass through any interesting terrain. In fact, it was kind of a "get the job done" walk. A lot of it was either on or very close to a major highway, and then passed through the typical industrial/claptrap neighborhoods one finds coming into just about any large city. But it was all worth it to enter the town via the old Roman arch bridge that spans the Guadiana River.

The Romans originally settled here in 23 BC to provide a place for the veterans of the Iberian wars and named it Augusta Emerita, later shortened and corrupted to Merida. It contains the largest number of intact roman structures in all of Spain. We considered a layover day here to give my leg some time to heal. But it is doing quite a bit better, and the next four days are relatively short, so I hate to squander this stretch of good walking weather on a layover day. I'd prefer to continue for the next 4 days to Caceres where we have a friend who has offered lodging. Not only that, we're enjoying the company of the other peregrinos we've met up with and hate to leave the pack. About half of them are only going as far as Caceres, so we may stick with them until then.