June 14 Mansilla de las Mulas

For our penultimate day we had a warm one with occasional showers.
Today we were mostly on an ancient Roman road and on this one we
recognized occasional remnants of the original road. It was quite
amazing to walk on a road over 2000 years old. To the north we now
have the snow covered extensions of the Pyrenees that we remember from
our first week out of Leon at the start of the walk.
The crops today looked poor, as the soil is a bit sandier and perhaps
the rainfall has not been as good. Some are getting quite ripe and
will be in the bin soon.
Mansilla seems a nice little town and was very welcome as there was no
coffee until we got here!
After booking in to the albuqerque, showering etc we did our usual
village wander and tried to find muesli for breakfast. We found none
so we bought a flat sugar covered bread about 2 cm thick and round
like a pie. I hope it makes a good breakfast! We found a meenu del dia
that had paella for 1st course and yes, it was the best we've had so
far. This one had small crayfish in it as well as sweet juicy prawns
and chunks of fish. We had trout again for second course and as usual,
it was delicious. They use paper table clothes here and if they are
stiff they can make the table look bigger than it is. I entertained
the restaurant by placing my plate too close to the edge and watching
it smash into hundreds of pieces. Oh dear.
At the bridge that markes the edge of town we saw huge (40 cm) fish
swimming in the river. I suspect they were carp.