The Road from Santiago

  For most of today we will be walking along the road, gazing at the fields, and so let us have some more untranslatable Spanish terms. Resol - the reflection of the sun off a surface or the glare of the sun. Recogerse. To go indoors in the evening once the day is over. Estrenar - to wear something for the first time or to break it in. Merendar - going out for a snack, coffee or a small meal. Sobremesa. The conversation at the dinner table after the meal is over. Mezquita de Jarque has much the same History as many places around here. Around 300 souls till the 1960s. Today it has 83. The GSH says ‘ MEZQUITA DE JARQUE: Village with town hall in the province and diocese of Teruel (9 leagues),. It is situated on the left bank of the Mezquita or Jarque stream; with a somewhat cold climate , pleurisy and pneumonia being the most common illnesses. It consists of about 50 houses , including the town hall, distributed along narrow streets and a square; it has a jail, a boys' school atte...

It is a day of the cross country. We will possibly take an old railway line - the broken bridge suggests it.  We will see snow fences by the road and the sharp contrast of green irrigated fields and scrub land.  Apart from that we better look at the date. 30th October. The 30th is a key day in the History of Iberia. A Castilian-Portuguese force defeated the Marinids at the Battle of Salado. The Almohads had been kicked out of Iberia and then fallen to the Berber Banu Marin [aka Marinids] tribe. The Marinids invaded and were brought to battle by the Alfonsos - XI of Castile and IV of Portugal. The home teams won. In 1520 Hernan Cortes wrote his Second Letter of Relation.   He began by saying he was sorry he hadn’t written from some time. He reported the  sinking of the ships to prevent desertions by Velázquez's followers. He describes the riches of the State of Culúa -, whose subjugation to the Spanish Crown is the main objective. He reported on the expedition se...

Given Visiedo is the only settlement on our route we will divert our attention off the A-1509 and have a look. Everything we have said about other villages goes for Visiedo.  The population of about 600 went into a steady decline after 1960, to the present 132. Shall we look at the GSH. We are going to because I like it and it is content. VISEDO: A village with a town hall in the province and diocese of Teruel (7 leagues). Situated on flat land in the countryside of the same name; the climate is healthy and not very cold. It has about 150 houses of moderate construction with flat streets, but very dirty in winter; there is a primary school attended by 30 children; a parish church (San Pedro) served by a priest appointed on a temporary basis, and a well-situated cemetery. There are several springs of excellent water within its boundaries. The land is flat and of good quality, although dryland; there is a pasture with grazing land and holm oak woodland. The roads are regular and...