First day...

The church bells started tolling as I reached the outskirts of Calzada de Valdunciel, noontime. This village of about 550 inhabitants will be my first stop on the camino.
I left the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca around 08:15, with the sky starting to turn dark blue with the early rays of the sun.

Leaving Salamanca, through the Calle Zamora, from "glorieta" to "glorieta" (roundabout), past the Plaza de Toros, through the messy outskirts, past newbuilt highway entries (without pedestrian crossings), onto the N630 road towards Zamora. Joggers ran past me on their morning outing. Ahead of me, another pilgrim: Jean, from Grenoble, who had a map with -wrong- directions, which cost us another 2 extra kilometers, trying to cross a small river via an unfound bridge.

We soon entered the wide open spaces of the meseta. Yellow fields, sunflowers, sheep. Pleasant enough temperatures (in the morning).

Upon arriving at Calzada de Valdunciel, I immediately checked into the albergue de peregrinos, dropped my backpack on an available bed and went out searching for the Biblioteca Municipal, where I'm noz seated in a row of kids surfing the internet. There is great progress even in the smallest of villages! The library is due to close in seven minutes, but I'm happy to have been able to post this message to you all. Tomorrow, I'm off (20 km) to a similarly small place called El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino.

My shoulders ache a bit from the backpack, but basically I'm none the worse for this first day of walking. Now I'm going out for a beer or a glass of wine, around 14:00 I'll see where I can find a light meal. Then? ¡Siesta!

Bonjour a tout le monde, bisous a Irene, Nigel, Haroun eh los castellanos belgas, saludos desde el nombril de Castilla!
¡Que les vaya bien!
Paul