Vía de la Plata
31.8 km, 200 m up and 245 m down, through 6 places, 2 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Torremejía. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
If you made your way to the N-630 while in Torremejía there is no need to retrace your steps. Follow it out of town and you will rejoin the camino which emerges from your right. If follows adjacent to the road before arrows and a bollard direct you towards a path on your right. It passes the Ence Mérida factory and heads straight to the outskirts of Mérida where the arrows are a bit unclear. When you emerge onto the road you will see ahead of you a bridge over the river; you need to follow the trail (not the road) which passes underneath that bridge. It leads directly to a small riverside park and at the end of the park is the pedestrian bridge over the río into Mérida.
Once over the bridge the camino immediately turns left to follow a path along the river, avoiding altogether any meaningful entrance into the city of Mérida.
The camino does not make any real entrance into the oldest parts of Mérida and with the exception of the Alcazaba (the castle at the end of the bridge) and the Acueducto de Los Milagros it avoids passing any of the most significant buildings in the city.
From the shadow of the aqueduct, the camino proceeds northward to a set of roundabouts. At the first roundabout it bears left, and at the second roundabout, it does the same to follow along with the Avenida del Lago to Proserpina.
From the shadow of the aqueduct, the camino proceeds northward to a set of roundabouts. At the first roundabout it bears left, and at the second roundabout, it does the same to follow along with the Avenida del Lago to Proserpina.
Proserpina is a small settlement spread along the road north of Merida, named for the nearby reservoir. Most of the village sits to the east of the camino, but a few restaurants and bars line the road before and after th…
The camino follows a paved road away from the embalse for 4 km before turning sharply left to leave it (just before a bridge turns right). From here it follows a path for another 3.5 km into El Carrascalejo.
The camino climbs gently up to the village, passes counterclockwise around the church, and down the hill to the left and past the albergue. It passes beneath the A-66 before arriving at Aljucen.
The camino follows a paved road out of town and joins the N-630 before crossing the Rio Aljucen. Once over the river, it leaves the road (before the gas station) to follow a long path through the countryside.
Along the way to Alcuescar, there are two detours. The first is to the Basilica de Santa Lucia del Trampal but it is not well signposted. From the Basilica you can simply follow the road 3 km to Alcuescar. Of course, if you are not comfortable with the trails and signage you can always walk that same road from Alcuescar to visit the 7th-century Visigothic temple. Admission is free (but closed on Mondays) and there is a small exhibition explaining the archaeological findings.
The second detour is mentioned below.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 134 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 32 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.