Family Sánchez Alonso

As yet I've not had time to tell the story of our dinner on Monday night. The reason for this is because I wanted to dedicate a little more time to writing the piece; when you read what happened I think you'll understand why.

We were plodding south on the pothole pitted road to Jerez, lush vinyards on our right hand side, bare fields of grey earth, like a lunar landscape on our left, where the sunflowers had been harvested.

A cyclist came up from behind us and, modifying his pace to our walking speed, inquired as to our walk. After chatting for a while in general we explained the precise nature of the project, and stopped to give him one of the business cards l've been handing out with the tartan bull logo and "Fighting Amyloidosis" wording in English and Spanish. Our new companion asked directly if we knew someone who'd had amyloidosis. He was the first person I've met in the entire route not to ask what amyloidosis was.

It turns out that our companion, Jose Ignacio Sánchez García, is a doctor, a General Practitioner, and has had patients with the disease, so knows it well. We discussed the disease and the associations that might be able to help with regards to getting the message out and fund raising.

We were still a couple of kilometres from Jerez, and it was growing dark. Jose explained that his house was right next to where we would enter the city, but that as the centre was another 3km on from there he would be happy to get home, drop his bike off and drive us up to save us the walk. I obviously couldn't but for Sarah who was beginning to feel the pain, after a tough day, it was the perfect offer.

Just as we reached the city limits however José stopped to call home and when he caught up with us asked if we'd like to come for dinner at his house and meet his family.

So instead of a tiring trudge through an unknown city to the centre, to then have to find a hotel for the night, we were soon relaxing in the pleasant company of Jose's family, made up of Milagros Alonso, his wife and their children Ignacio and Lucía. 

After extremely welcome showers we settled down to the finest (and biggest!) dinner I've had all trip. The morcilla (black pudding) from Salamanca, where Jose originally comes from, was exceptional.

The family are great company, and the conversation flowed as we tucked into the array of fine foods laid out before us. Mostly Spanish, as Sarah speaks a little as well, but with snippets of English here and there, as both Ignacio and Lucía speak good English. In fact the family had recently been in London, for site seeing and to test their English -they both passed with flying colours apparently, guiding their parents around.
One of the things noticeable about casa Sánchez Alonso are the excellent paintings. Jose asked me if I recognised the scene in one in particular, it was in fact of a Roman bridge I passed two weeks ago, between Caceres and Merida, and was done by none other than Jose himself. He is clearly a talented individual as well as a genial host.

Dinner done it was already late and time to say our goodbyes (Lucia, who had school the next day had disappeared a little before) but not content with having attended to us like kings, Jose then drove Sarah up to the centre and organised a hotel for us.

The walk has been made up of many acts of kindness towards me by complete strangers, but I think there is something incredibly special about being invited into someone's home. Mil gracias to Jose and his family.