Category: Camino Our Way-2017

• Distance today:                       10.5mi
• Distance Camino 2017:      154.3 mi

After leaving Grañon this morning

we passed through three nearly equally spaced villages: Redecilla (pop.137), where we stopped for breakfast, Viloria de la Rioja (pop.50),

the village where Santo Domingo de la Calzada was born and Villamayor del Rio (pop.53), known as “the place of three lies”.

Instead of being as it’s name implies, the large town on a river, it is actually a small hamlet on a creek!

Grañon to Belorado is a little more than 10 miles via the Camino.

It’s mostly a dirt path along long straight stretches of a two lane highway and pavement into and out of the towns and villages. We walked on rolling hills and were surrounded by recently mowed wheat fields and occasional fields of not-yet-harvested sunflowers.

Today, shortly before entering the village of Redecilla, we left the region of Rioja and entered Castillo & Leon, the largest region in Spain and it encompasses the next 400 km (250 miles) of the Camino.

We made another stop, just after entering the Belorado town limits for some refreshment and to let our feet cool.

We’ve had a nice relaxing afternoon, recovering from our longer walk today. Other than doing our routine chores, our only activity was to walk about 20 steps to take a look at church with 4 huge stork nests in its belfry.

At about 6:00, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to the town square and after some serious searching, found a restaurant that served something beside pintxos before 8:00.

Our tummies full we returned to our hotel for the evening.

Belorado’s fiesta is not for another week or so, consequently  things have been quiet, for a welcomed change of pace.

• Distance today:                        8.4mi
• Distance Camino 2017:     143.8 mi

We walked through farmland for a while after leaving Cirueña this morning at daybreak.

A mile or two later, we saw half a dozen vehicles parked just off the narrow dirt road. Doubting it was a ride/share program as traffic was minuscule in Cirueña yesterday, we were about to speculate on the occasion, when we heard several gun shots. A closer look revealed bird hunters, probably grouse or quail or dove, and their canine hunt mates. Everyone, hunters and dogs, seemed to be enjoying themselves on a cool Saturday morning.

Shortly after, we sighted the next town, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, which has always been linked to The Pilgrimage of St. James. 

Its founder, Domingo García, was born in Viloria de Rioja (Burgos) in 1019. He decided to devote his life to God and tried to enter the monasteries of San Millán and Valvanera but was not accepted.

Around the year 1040 he became a hermit in the forests which occupied the site on which this city now stands. From his home he was able to see how difficult the pilgrimage was for those undertaking it and he began to work to help them by building a bridge to cross the Oja River, a hospital where pilgrims could seek refuge, roads connecting Nájera and Redecilla del Camino (Burgos) and a little church.

Domingo received approval from King Alfonso VI de Castilla who provided the piece of land where Domingo built the first church completed in 1106, but which sadly no longer exists.

When Domingo died, on 12th May 1109, he was buried in a sepulcher he had designed and prepared for himself in the middle of the road he himself had built for the pilgrims.

When the Cathedral was begun in 1158, it was built around Santo Domingo’s tomb, becoming part of the south transept of the Cathedral. His followers maintained the little village which later took his name and they continued his work, creating a confraternity, that even today works to keep his memories, traditions and beliefs alive by working with pilgrims in the Hostel.

Santo Domingo performed 12 miracles during his life that led to his beatification.

Two of his best known miracles involves the Camino. Legend tells of a German Pilgrim called Hugonell who was walking to Santiago with his parents, when they decided to rest at an inn in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The owner of the inn´s daughter immediately fell in love with him; however her feelings were not reciprocated, so the girl, angered, placed a silver cup into his luggage and accused the boy of theft. Thieves at that time were punished by hanging, and this was the fate of Hugonell. His parents, saddened by his death continued the pilgrimage, and upon arriving in Santiago de Compostela, began their return journey to visit the grave of their dead son. When they arrived in Santo Domingo however, they found their son still hanging in the gallows but, miraculously alive. Hugonell, excited, said to them: “Santo Domingo brought me to back life, please go to the Mayor´s house and ask him to take me down”. Quickly, the parents arrived at the Mayor´s house and told him of the miracle. The incredulous Mayor, who was preparing to have dinner with friends, responded: “That boy is as alive as these two roast chickens we are about to eat,” and suddenly, the chickens came to life, sprouted feathers and beaks and began to crow.

We had breakfast in a small bar adjacent to the Catherdral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada and then as pilgrims gained entrance to the Cathedral for 3€ each.

In front of the Mausoleum of Santo Domingo was a stone, polychrome and gothic Henhouse, which was built in the middle of the 15th century to keep alive a hen and a rooster in memory of the most famous of Santo Domingo´s miracles. There are documents from Pope Clemente VI dated 1350 allowing these live animals inside the cathedral. Below the cage is a representation of the pilgrim being hanged painted by Alonso Gallego. Above the cage there is a piece of wood from the gallows.

We were also impressed with the beauty of the tomb and statue of Santo Domingo and the simplicity of the altar and absence of an ornate retablo, positioned instead in the left transept of the Cathedral.

Four miles later we entered the village of Grañon (pop. 306) that was having, you guessed it, a fiesta. Shortly after we arrived, checked in and shopped for some groceries, it seemed the the entire population turned out to be entertained by an all drum band, free chorizo, bread and drinks.

We entered the church in Grañon which was empty as all the folks had already attended a noon service and were now engaged in the fiesta.

It’s a really special place, nice retablo as most Iglesia we have visited but this one has wooden floors, much like you would find in an old log cabin, which created a very warm and inviting feeling… a true sanctuary.

Other events followed, but as soon as the crowd cleared enough for us to make it to our room, which was once again, by chance, in the center of the festivities, we got back into our pilgrim afternoon routine.

We’re staying in the small casa rural called, “Mirabel”(50€), a habitacion doble con bano with access to a full kitchen and living area.

We took advantage of the facilities and prepared both lunch and dinner from items procured from two small grocery stores nearby.

Just before calling it day, we walked back to the town square and couldn’t believe the magnitude of the celebration of this village of just over 300 people.

Fiesta us a very big deal in Spain.

• Distance today:                      9.6 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:    135.4 mi

We encountered a steep climb up the mountain behind Nájera at the beginning of our walk and a gradual, steep incline carrying us from the valley up into Cirueña, but otherwise the terrain was not an issue for our longest walk since we began nearly 3 weeks ago.

Shortly after our breakfast stop in Asofra,

Jim chatted for a few minutes with Gary from England who was walking 25-30 km per day for only a week, as he has done the last few years. With him were his daughter, a college student, and his two cousins.

We stopped for a second cafe con leche and zuma  naranja at a golf course for an unusual 19th hole Camino experience to conclude our walk.

Today was much of what we enjoy about the Camino. The rolling farmland of Rioja, extending out in all directions from a winding seemingly endless Camino soothed the senses. The dark green rows of fruit filled grape vines randomly patched among already harvested fields of grain and occasional, occurring lighter green olive orchards formed a comforting quilt. The sounds of rustling water in the open irrigation trenches, the gentle rhythm of crunching footsteps and an occasional dog bark punctuated the soundless void that was relaxing and meditative and sustaining.

The cloudy sky with showers off in the distance and a gusty wind threatened rain most of the morning, but provided only a minor threat and instead made us thankful and satisfied as we completed today’s not hard, not easy but satisfying daily journey.

We arrived in Cirueña (pop. 127) at 11:45 and we able to check-in to Casa Victoria (42€), a home that rents out 3-4 nice rooms for guests. After completing our chores we had a sandwich for lunch at the “only bar in town”, literally, then had a nice relaxing afternoon.

For dinner we joined a group at the Albergue Victoria which is owned by the same family that owns ours. Our fellow pilgrims all spoke a little English.

One lady, originally from Peru was with her American husband and they live in Connecticut. The others were from Brazil, Italy and Ireland.

• Distance today:                      6.6 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:    125.8 mi

Between Ventosa and Nájera is the village of Alesón where the legendary knight, Roland had camped in July 778 with his knights on his way to Santiago with Charlemagne and the French army. Early the next morning they marched to the Poyo Roldan (Roland’s Hill),

which was a large mound serving as a watchtower over the castle of Nájera. The Moors occupied Nájera and had sent the giant, Ferragut, of Syrian origin and 20,000 soldiers from Turkey to fight Charlemagne’s army, who was marching to Santiago and driving the Moors from northern Spain. Ferragut was reportedly a descendent of Goliath (of David and Goliath fame), was 9 feet tall and weighed over 400 pounds. (He was ugly, too!)

Ferragut came out from Nájera into the open field between Poyo Roldan and Nájera, challenging any of the opposition to fight him one-on-one. Many tried and failed. Finally, Roland insisted on having his turn and fought with the giant for three days. In between spurts of fighting the two conversed about their respective faiths, and Ferragut revealed that his one weak place (his Achille’s heel if you will) was his belly button. A final duel ensued, having both agreed that the winner would be the one espousing the true faith. Ferragut tried to fall on Roland to crush him to death, but Roland stabbed him in the belly and won.

The duel lost, the Moors vacated Nájera and moved south, clearing the way for Charlemagne’s army to continue on their way toward Santiago. And Roland became the greatest knight in Christianity.

We must be getting stronger. Maybe not strong enough to take on Ferragut, but today’s walk seemed actually easy. We were pleasantly surprised when we stopped just outside of Nájera (pop. 8144) for our standard breakfast and weren’t really tired from our nearly 7 mile trek.

 

Pencion Calle Mayor (30€) didn’t open until noon so we explored Nájera a little and hung around a bar with wifi (most every place has wifi, especially bars) and made like efficient pilgrims waiting for their room.

Our twin bed room is small and shares 2 bathrooms with 5 other private rooms and a communal bedroom with 6 twin beds (not bunks).

There is a communal kitchen which is large enough to include a washing machine and racks to dry clothes near several windows. Being the first pilgrims to arrive, we had the bathrooms to ourselves for showers and washing socks and underwear, so we didn’t actually share.

Late afternoon (4:30-5:30) we walked around Nájera and discovered as we often do in Spain, that a meal like dinner, is not offered by restaurants before 8:00 p.m. We finally found a bar and ordered pasta.

Before calling it a day we walked to the Monasterio de Santa María la Real.

According to legend, in 1044 Navarran King Don Garcia III was hunting partridge with a falcon. The two birds entered a cave and the king followed them in and deep inside he found a statue of the Virgin Mary, with a vase of fresh lilies and a burning oil lamp.

He saw this as a blessing on the Reconquista and used some of the money he had plundered from the Moors to build a church around the cave leaving the statue in place. At one point the statue wore a crown of jewels, which were later stolen and divided. The Black Prince Ruby made its way to England’s coronation crown.

The church is also a burial place for Navarran royalty and also contains the remains of monarchs going back to 918 AD.

• Distance today:                     5.5 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:   119.2 mi

Today’s walk was relatively short and mostly unremarkable, by design, as our main objective was to stay in Ventosa at the Hotel Rural Las Aquedas, a significant highlight of our previous Camino.

Furthermore, the normal stopping points available for the 45 miles after Logroño would require 4 or 5 days in a row of walking 10 miles. By staying last night in Navarrete and tonight in Ventosa, our mileage from Logroño for the next several days will be: 8, 5, 6, 9, 7, 10… resulting in an extra overnight but hopefully much easier on our feet and bodies.

Las Aquedas (63€) would be considered a very nice B&B in the U.S., so for us it seems like a bargain.  It is owned and run by Rocio Juesas Bonet, a gracious Spanish Señora. She welcomes you like an old friend into her beautifully decorated home, a converted 18th century bakery.

Our room (the same room we occupied in 2014) is spacious with a modern bathroom and separate vanity area, solid hardwood doors and trim, classic furniture, comfortable seating, a crystal chandelier over a king size bed, marble tiled floors and well placed windows that create natural cross ventilation eliminating the need for air conditioning even in the middle of August.

There is a common, functional living area for guests, suitable for reading, a game of cards or just enjoying the view of the surrounding mountains, valleys, vineyards and farmland.

Dinner guests are received in her green garden before being seated at her dining room table and served traditional and deliciously prepared Northern Spain foods, family style.

Because Las Aquedas is located on the Camino, the blend of Camino and non-Camino guests, potentially from anywhere in the world, makes for a unique, enriching dinner conversation and experience.

Tonight we were the only guests in the inn for dinner, but our culinary experience was still outstanding as well as our interaction with our hostess.

There is still a very special feeling about this place. Today was the most comfortable, restful day and evening so far on Camino 2017.  An unforgettable experience and memory.

 

1. Distance today:                     8.1 mi
2. Distance Camino 2017:   113.7mi

Today was a walk-in-the-park, at least for the first 4 miles. Shortly after walking through and leaving Logroño center city, we were directed to a wide, brick paver walkway surrounded by green grass and children’s play areas, which divided what appeared to be large apartment buildings, which extended for at least a half-mile.

The walkway then began winding through more green areas and a small pond and eventually narrowed as we left the city, but continued as a paved walk/bike trail with concrete benches every few hundred feet for at least another 1.5 miles. The concrete path became a dirt path through a camping park with playgrounds, a lake and a nearby golf course (according to signage). We stopped at a bar in the park that was just opening and had a cafe and shared a tortilla.

During our combination breakfast stop/feet rest, we chatted with a young couple in their late 60’s from Holland, Pete & Katia. They were walking their 5th Camino, but started from Pamplona each time to avoid the difficult first stage over the Pyrenees. We asked them to take a photo of us before they departed. They were walking a bit faster than we, so we wished them “buen Camino” as we left the rest stop together.

Rain has been threatening all morning and we can see showers in the distance. When a few drops hit us, we stopped, put on our pack rain covers and put our ponchos in an easy to reach place, then continued on.  Like carrying an umbrella, activating our rain gear can prevent rain as it did today!

The rest of the walk was also on pavement, a road winding through and up the side of a hill through vineyards and an asphalt path parallel to the highway until we got on dirt again just outside Navarrete, where we got back on asphalt and climbed a very steep hill into this small town (pop. 2865).

As soon as we entered Navarrete at the top of the hill, we stopped at the first bar for orange juice/cafe con leche and another feet rest.

We continued on into and almost to the opposite side of town before reaching albergue El Cántaro.

The owner, whose wife completed the Camino in 2015, said they didn’t open until 12:00 but he allowed us to check in anyway and guided us to our room.

There is a festival going on in town, so immediately after we completed our chores, we walked back to town center for a pintxos lunch

plus a visit to the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, which has one of the most impressive baroque retablos in all of Spain.

Linda acquired two small blisters with today’s longer walk, but applied her standard treatment and as with previous ones, should not be a problem.

We walked back into the main town square at 6:00 p.m. to get something to eat. But every restaurant or pintxos bar we went to, the food was either gone or picked over due to the apparent large festival turnout. We finally found a couple of sandwiches and were about to return to the room when a band marched by and we followed it to an arena next to the square. We couldn’t believe our eyes, so we bought two tickets and attended a bullfight!

It was really neat. Great fun to watch 5 young toreros (a torero is a bullfighter, whereas, a matador is a torero who actually kills the bull in the bullfight) ranging from low teens to maybe 20 perform in the ring and neither toreros nor bulls were hurt.

So ended another gem of a day on the Camino Frances.