July 28, 2023 – Jimandi

Walked today: 5.7 mi Camino2023: 109 mi

Leaving Cirueña with the emerging sunrise

the sunrises so far have been less spectacular than in the past, but we still have the month of August to go, so we’ll keep watching.

our first sighting of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

the not-so-attractive look of the walk into Santo Domingo de la Calzada

the Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada where St Dominic is buried… the 11th century “builder and caretaker” of the Camino in this area. He cleared the way, built roads and bridges.

A Parador Hotel, adjacent to the Catedral, is on the site of the original hospital built by St Dominic in the 11th century then converted to an inn in the 15th century, that served pilgrims until being converted to a state-owned luxury hotel in 1965.

Linda found a comfortable seat in the lobby of Parador Hotel where we waited for Oscar, our taxi driver.

As prearranged yesterday afternoon, a taxi met us in front of the Parador at 9:00 to take us to Belorado, our destination for the day. When making our reservations for Camino 2023, we were unable to book a place to stay between Santo Domingo and Belorado… a distance of 23 km (14 miles). The only reasonable solution for us was to plan to skip this section (having already walked in it 2014, 2017 and 2019) as opposed to walking the 14 miles in one day.

Also, we are aware that there is only one taxi service with only one driver that covers the area from Cirueña to Belorado. There is also one bus that goes through Santo Domingo to Belorado beginning at 12:40 daily. We met Oscar, the taxi driver, last year and were able to piggyback with another rider to make the same deviation we made today. That’s why we had our host in Cirueña contact him yesterday when we arrived and booked him for the only time he had available for today. The fee for the 20 minute ride was 35€.

La Huella del Camino was our hotel in Belorado.

a mural painted on the exposed wall of our hotel

another beautiful mural painted on the building wall next to our hotel

still another mural across the street from our hotel, depicting an historical medieval battle involving Belorado.

Our room would not be ready until noon so we filled the time by re-familiarizing ourselves with this town of 2100 inhabitants on this 5th visit since 2014. We also recharged our supply of euros at one of the three ATM’s in the town square.

Belorado has been settled since Roman occupation and was granted a charter in 1116 that allowed for an annual fair, the first such charter granted in Spain. We arrived in Belorado in 2014 on the day they we’re celebrating this annual fair. We were at first surprised, then overwhelmed and finally joined in on the festivities, which has been one of the fondest memories of our Caminos.

The ruins of the Belorado Castillo (above and behind the Iglesia de Santa Maria) are right behind our hotel (note mural)

the interior of the Iglesia de Santa Maria

We checked-in to our room at noon, as promised and began our daily chores and rested until 2:30, when we walked downstairs for our main meal of the day in the hotel restaurant.

our double room with an ensuite bathroom

We ordered from the “Menu Dia” or menu of the day… a two course meal with dessert and bottle of wine or water for 13.50€.

First Course- Linda: peas, ham, hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes Jim: lettuce, carrots, olives, corn, red peppers, raisins, assorted nuts, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, bacon bits

Second course- Linda: “lemon” chicken, fried potatoes, padron pepper, tomato

Second course- Jim: pork cheeks in brown sauce, fried potatoes, padrón pepper, tomato

Dessert- Jim & Linda: homemade cheesecake with blueberry compote topped with walnut and flower design of dark chocolate and cherry

Our dinners were well prepared and tasty and the service was excellent. Another memorable culinary experience for Camino 2023.

We retired to our room for the day, napped, read and blogged until bedtime.