Because afternoon temperatures rise into the 90’s, we decided to
get an early start on our day. We arose
at 4:45 am and were on the road shortly after 5:00. We wore headlamps to cut through the darkness
and made it onto the Camino to start our walk.
No, we’re not the only crazy pilgrims to start this early! There were many others already along the route. We could see the faint glimmer of their
headlamps ahead of us.
We walked a long time in the dark.
Yes, it was cool and yes, we made a lot of progress. But it’s a shame not to see anything along
the way. It’s better walking in the
light.
We reached our first town, Azofra, at 6:30 am. It’s 6.8 km from our starting point, and its
existence centers on serving perregrinos. Thankfully, there was a café open and serving
great coffee early in the morning when we arrived. It made Paco’s day!
Our walk today followed wheat fields, vineyards of La Rioja, and
passed many medieval ruins and waymarkers.
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| Scenes from the walk to Santo Domingo |
Here’s a photo of Paco and our Swedish friend Karin with a medieval waymarker,
La Picota.
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| Paco and our friend Karin at La Picota |
By 10:30 am we reached Santo Domingo de la Calzada. This is a beautiful medieval town which owes
its existence to a young man named Domingo Garcia, born in 1019 to a family of
very modest means. He felt a calling to
become a monk, but was denied acceptance by the local monastery because he was
illiterate. Instead, he devoted his life
to improving the roads and infrastructure for pilgrims traveling to Santiago de
Compostela. He built a pilgrim hospital,
which is now the Parador, and a church, which evolved into the Cathedral. It’s a very cute town and a great stop for
refreshments and a rest.
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| Paco and Karin at the Medieval Wall at Santo Domingo |
We picked up an important tip from a fellow traveler: to reduce
stress on your feet, change your socks mid-trek. We’ve been doing this for a few days, and it
really makes a difference.
Except Paco started having issues with his feet. Our discussion revolved which town would be our
final destination: Grañón (6.7 km away) or Viloria de la Rioja (14.1 km). We decided we’d wait to see how we felt as
the day progressed.
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| Scenes from the Walk to Grañón |
Two kilometers later, Paco called it: we’ll stop at Grañón. His feet wouldn’t make it any further. Just to put this into perspective, that makes
a total of 29.5 kilometers for the day.
Grañón is a beautiful little town, with Iglesia San Juan Bautista
at the center of the action. The church is beautiful, and Mass was very
moving. The special blessing for
pilgrims on the Camino was very special.
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| Church of San Juan de Bautista in Grañón |
We intended to stay at the albergue run by the Jacobean monks,
adjacent to the church. Upon arriving,
we were shown the accommodations: two large attic rooms with 20 mats laid out
side by side on the floor in each room. One bathroom
and one shower for all forty pilgrims.
We decided upon an alternate arrangement!
Poor Paco spent the afternoon tending to his sore feet. Tomorrow, we hope to walk another 30
kilometers, if Paco can manage. Otherwise,
there are many other towns along the way that will pique our interest.
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| Paco's Toes: Day 8 |
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