Swinging in Villamayor all the way to Belorado

We lucked out; no rain today.  I don't think we are going to be quite so lucky tomorrow! We walked 14.2 miles today from Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belardo. We left the Rioja Region of Spain and entered the Castilla y Leon Region. It is the latest of all the Regions in Spain and has a vast history. We will be traveling through 3 of its 9 provinces over the next couple of weeks: Burgos, Palencia and Leon. Suffice to say that the ancient Kingdom of Castile is well named for its many castles, which were built to protect and promote the kingdom.  I can't wait to see some castles in the coming days!

After spending two nights in the same hotel we became friendly with the innkeeper's. We talked them into serving breakfast at 7:30 this morning instead of 8:00 so that we could get on our way at daybreak. Below is a picture I took of Lee and the innkeeper. He was a very sweet guy and is now the proud owner of a "San Diego" cap.

 

Last night we caught up with a couple of women (Vera & Deny) from Holland that we have befriended along the way. The Dutch Company that booked their accommodations has selected the same hotels we are staying in. We have ended up seeing each other several times throughout the days.  They both have been very friendly and welcoming to us, they are very sweet ladies and both speak English fairly well. Unfortunately they will only be walking for a couple more days with us and they have to head back home to Holland where they plan to follow us on this a Blog.

We walked through several small villages today: Granon, Viloria and Villamayor.  We made a picnic lunch to eat along the way today and found the perfect spot to eat in a small park in Villamayor.  Lee spied a swing set and couldn't resist going for a swing.  See video below:

Our hotel here in Belardo is nice but there is NO elevator and our room is on the second floor! It was no fun walking up the steps with our backpacks, hiking sticks and luggage at the end of the day. Good news is the room has a tub so we can let our feet soak tonight.  Here are a few pictures from today. We are heading to Atapuerca in the morning.

FINALLY! Our first rest day...yeah!

A day to recouperate, restore and renew. A day to wash, dry and reorganize.  The hotel we are staying in here in Santo Domingo de la Calzada had a nice breakfast for us to start the day off.  Afterwards we headed to the laundromat.  We wanted to get there early as there are only two machines.  A load of wash here costs 3.50€ Or about $4.44 and to dry  2.00€ or $2.44.  The washer dispenses soap automatically so no need to buy soap.  Very convenient!  While we were waiting for our wash, Lee made friends with a little cat.  She even went a bought it some milk.  See picture below.

We are staying in the oldest section of the town.  You can see (and hear) the Cathedral's bell tower from our room.  At night it is lite up and it's a beautiful site! This town is named after Saint Dominic who spent his life improving the route for pilgrims in the 11th century, building roads and bridges. His birth name was Domingo Garcia and was born in 1019 in humble surroundings in Viloria, just up the road from here. Many miracles are attributed to Saint Dominic and his spirit is still very much alive here in this city.  Embellished over the years, this story is one of the more endearing stories along the Way of St. James.

Legend has it that a pilgrim couple and their son stopped at an Inn here on their way to Santiago.  The pretty innkeeper's daughter had her eye on the handsome lad, but the devout young fellow thwarted her advances. Incensed by his refusal she hid a silver goblet in his backpack and reported him for stealing it. The innocent lad was caught and condemned to hang. Some accounts suggest the parents continued on their way, oblivious of the fate of their son.  Upon their return from Santiago they found him still hanging on the gallows but miraculously still alive thanks to the intervention of Saint Dominic. They rushed to the sheriff's house and found his lordship just sitting down for dinner. Upon hearing the parents, he retorted that their son was no more alive than the chicken he was about to eat, whereupon the fowl stood up on the dish and crowed loudly. The miracle was not lost on the sheriff who rushed back to the gallows to cut down the poor lad, who was given a full pardon. To this day a hen and a rooster have been kept in a cage in the Cathedral commemorating the miracle.

We hope you enjoy the pictures we took from around town today.  We head to Belorado in the morning.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today a gift. That is why it is called the present"

We left Najera this morning at day break after having another fabulous breakfast. Today's hike was about 13 miles, but it felt a whole lot longer walking with my first blister on my right heel, ouch!  Thank goodness tomorrow is a rest day so that it has a little time to heal.  The terrain today was pretty similar to yesterday's; vineyards upon vineyards.  We stopped in the village of Azofra for tea & coffee and in Ciruena for lunch. It was cloudy today and cool out.  We could see it raining hard off in the distance in the mountains but we only got a little sprinkle.

About half way between lunch and our final destination wouldn't you know nature calls for me.  We have about 3 miles to go for the day, I have a blister on my heal and I'm not moving fast!  We wait for two pilgrims to pass us and I see a sheep herder, his dogs and about 300 sheep off in the distance.  I spy a blackberry bush that looks like good cover. I drop my pack, grab some toilet paper and I go behind the bush to relieve myself while Lee stands guard on the trail. About a minute later Lee yells "you better hurry up, that sheep herder and his herd are heading this way!"  No sooner did I pull up my pants and came around the blackberry bush and there they were, "bah, bah, bah".  Here's a shot of some of them as they were passing by.

I promised to report back on my bidet experience, well in one word it was "refreshing".  There aren't any instructions for these things so I did what I thought would work.  I straddled it, facing the wall and turned the facet on...making sure the water was warm and I squat down. The porcelain is cold, and there's not a seat on it like its neighbor the toilet. You have to work fast as there's no sitting down on the job! Clean up, towel off and bam your done.  All refreshed and ready to go.  My opinion is, I have lived this long without a bidet I can live the rest of my life without one too. Lee wasn't brave enough to try it.

We are in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, I will write tomorrow and tell you about it then.  Enjoy some pictures from today.

Najera-Capital of the Kingdom of Navarre

 

Another long day...18.5 miles, yet it didn't seem as bad as the other day when we did nearly the same mileage.  The difference is that we set out this morning knowing we had that many miles to walk and we planned out our day accordingly.  Our hotel had a really nice buffet breakfast laid out for us and the other quests.  Below are some pictures. Once we were full, we made our way out of the big city of Logrono walked along natural paths over the Rio Ebro and then up over Alto Grajera. We made our first stop in a small village of Navarette almost 8 miles into our day and had coffee and tea. We had lunch in Ventosa about 12.5 miles out.  Again today much of the walk was through the vineyards and we got to watch harvesting of grapes. We passed several wineries along the way, which reminded me a lot of the Napa Valley. We arrived into Najera about 4:30, had dinner at a cafe right next to the Rio Najerilla.

Today was our 9th straight day of walking; we've walked over 130 miles, that's an average of 14.5 miles each day.  The Pilgrims we have been seeing along the way are mostly young college aged kids in their twenties and then there are the newly retired folks.  So far, Lee has been the oldest one on the trail.  Lee turns 76 in a few weeks and most of the pilgrims can't believe it because she's in such good shape for her age. Several have stopped us to have their picture taken with her, it's hilarious! I have another confession to make, more often than not Lee is out in front of me on the trail and stops to wait for me to catch up.  Especially towards the end of the day, when I have kicked into slow...she speeding up!  She says it's because she can't wait to get her pack and boots off; but I know she's running on caffeine from all the expresso's she's been having!

There are a few things here that take time to get used to.  The showers can be hazardous.  Lee somehow managed to have one get away from her and I heard a scream, when I entered the bathroom to see what was the matter the ceiling, the walls, the floors (you name it) everything but Lee was wet. Also, a lot of the bathrooms have bidets, we've never used one before so I think it's time to give one a try.  Tonight before my bath I will try to figure out how it's used, I will report tomorrow on the experience. :)

Oh how we've longed for Logrono

We left the Navarra region of Spain today and crossed over into the great wine-producing region of La Rioja. Most of our hike today was through farmlands, vineyards and pockets of pine trees.  We needed this shorter day (12.8 miles) to recover from yesterday and prepare for tomorrow's long day. We stopped at the small village of Viana, had lunch and visited the church of Santa Maria in the pictures below.  This church was built in the early 13th century, all by hand without all the modern machinery we have these days. Amazing!

As we climbed to our high point today, Alto del Payo we found an area where pilgrims built cairns and left all kinds of mementos.  Lee brought a few AA tokens to leave at different places along the route. She says if it weren't for AA she wouldn't be here today so she left her first one there on top of that mountain.

We met a young man in his twenties doing the Camino with his Mother.  They are from Denmark. He plans to move to Los Angeles when he finishes the Camino to promote his band.  He has such ambition and is determined to follow his dream.  We gave him one of the "California" caps and told him we hoped to see him on T.V. someday.  We nicked named him "Rock Star" and when ever we run across each other on the trail I say, "hello Rock Star" and he says "hello San Diego"! Peoples names are too hard to remember on the trail, but we tend to remember where they are from.  We have met people from: Canada, Italy, Germany, Korea, South Africa, Denmark, France, Palm Springs, Florida, Maryland and of course people from all over Spain.

Here are some pictures from today.  Send us good vibes for tomorrow's hike...the longest so far.

Los Arcos...oops I mean Torres del Rio

We set off this morning at 8am, and just arrived at our hotel at 5pm.  We are tired, spent, and I can't believe I am even writing this now. We just finished walking 18.27 miles and when we set off this morning we were sure we had a 13.3 mile day ahead of us. I've got to write now because if I lay down for too long it just might not get written. We are following for the most part a guide book to get from town to town through Spain.  Our guide book shows the walk today being from Estella to Los Arcos. When we arrived to Los Arcos I pulled out the paper the travel company gave us to find the name of the hotel.  I looked down and saw the address was not in Los Arcos it was in another town about 5 miles ahead in Torres del Rio. When I informed Lee of the adjustment to our mileage today, she made an explicit comment I can not repeat here but it made me laugh.  We were both pretty tired and delirious from the day already, that we both started laughing.  Laughing with a full bladder is bad news and we both had to rush to a cafe to use the "bano" pronto!

Leaving this morning from Estella brought us through oak and pine trees as we made our way up to Monjarin today's highest peak.  After descending we made our way through remote vineyards, open country side and rolling hills. We stopped by one winery that had a wine and water fountain. There is a picture from the winery and several other pictures from our day below. Fatigue is setting in and it's time to clean up and get a bite to eat.  Until tomorrow...