Day 9, Sep 19, 2017, Santo Domingo de Calzada - Belorado, 14 miles
Okay, before I get into today's stuff, I have to tell you all about last night's trip to the cathedral of Santo Domingo. It's a huge cathedral with three apses and a very fancy retable. A crypt below with the body of Santo Domingo, who built the original church, a place for the pilgrims to stay, a hospital for them, a bridge over the river to help the pilgrims on their way and a few other helpful things. The cathedral has a hen house, of all things. This is because of the following legend.
In the days of yore, a pilgrim family consisting of father, mother and son came to Santo Domingo and stayed at an inn. The inn keeper's daughter fell in love with the son and wanted to marry him. He on the other hand didn't want to have anything to do with her. Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned - she decided to take revenge. She hid a silver candlestick amongst his things and as he was leaving town accused him of theft. When a search found the above object in his suitcase he was sentenced to hang and hang him, they did! When the sorrowing parents went to collect the body, he sat up and said that he was alive due to the grace of Santo Domingo! The parents were thrilled and went around telling everyone about this miracle. The inn keeper, being of a sceptical and questioning mind, said "He is as alive as this grilled chicken and rooster that are on my dining table!" Well, no sooner had he spoken than the said hen and rooster grew feathers and flew out of the dish crowing loudly. Ever since then, there has been a hen house in the cathedral. We thought it was a lame story, but in the middle ages or whatever, this was big news.
We started off today around 8:45. It was cold but sunny. We had a lovely and easy walk for the first 6.7 kms to the first town of Granon.
There was a lovely church there, if a trifle dark. Then we continued on to the next town of Redecilla del Camino. There was a nice little cafe where we had our coffee and a small snack and rested for a bit. We also went to the church there which had a nice retable and other decorations and an old Roman baptismal font, circa 12th century.
As we left the village and got on our way, we came across four cute little kittens! It totally made my day!!! Lisa is v patient with my cat hysteria.
Our next town, Castildelgado, was pretty but very tiny. We just walked through it to the next major village, Viloria de Rioja. Again, a very pretty place with homes that had lovely flowers all over the front. One thing that all these villages had in common is that they seem deserted. All the young people have left town to move to the big cities. This has become a common trend the world over because no one wants to stay in agricultural or dairy careers. The church here was closed so we went on to Villamayor de Rio. Today, all the villages were just 3 to 4 kms. apart. This town was even smaller than the previous one, tho they had a two really nice hotels. We went in and got a couple of cervezas con limon and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed on for our final stretch of 4 kms into Belorado. The path today was right next to the highway, which made for not such a fun walk, but it was otherwise an easy walk. We saw some lovely butterflies and insects....and sunflowers!
We walked in to Belorado and to our hotel - Hotel Jacobeo. It's a very basic kinda place but the girl at reception is very sweet and most helpful. We met a couple from Aspen, CO - Mary Ann and Deirdre and their friend Gary, from Sausalito. We spent a pleasant hour chatting and drinking beer before heading up to our room. We will be heading in to the village to have dinner at Cuatro Cantones - sounds like fun :-)
Tomorrow promises to be very hot and very long - 15 miles into San Juan de Ortega! Curraaazzzyyy!!
In the days of yore, a pilgrim family consisting of father, mother and son came to Santo Domingo and stayed at an inn. The inn keeper's daughter fell in love with the son and wanted to marry him. He on the other hand didn't want to have anything to do with her. Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned - she decided to take revenge. She hid a silver candlestick amongst his things and as he was leaving town accused him of theft. When a search found the above object in his suitcase he was sentenced to hang and hang him, they did! When the sorrowing parents went to collect the body, he sat up and said that he was alive due to the grace of Santo Domingo! The parents were thrilled and went around telling everyone about this miracle. The inn keeper, being of a sceptical and questioning mind, said "He is as alive as this grilled chicken and rooster that are on my dining table!" Well, no sooner had he spoken than the said hen and rooster grew feathers and flew out of the dish crowing loudly. Ever since then, there has been a hen house in the cathedral. We thought it was a lame story, but in the middle ages or whatever, this was big news.
We started off today around 8:45. It was cold but sunny. We had a lovely and easy walk for the first 6.7 kms to the first town of Granon.
There was a lovely church there, if a trifle dark. Then we continued on to the next town of Redecilla del Camino. There was a nice little cafe where we had our coffee and a small snack and rested for a bit. We also went to the church there which had a nice retable and other decorations and an old Roman baptismal font, circa 12th century.
As we left the village and got on our way, we came across four cute little kittens! It totally made my day!!! Lisa is v patient with my cat hysteria.
Our next town, Castildelgado, was pretty but very tiny. We just walked through it to the next major village, Viloria de Rioja. Again, a very pretty place with homes that had lovely flowers all over the front. One thing that all these villages had in common is that they seem deserted. All the young people have left town to move to the big cities. This has become a common trend the world over because no one wants to stay in agricultural or dairy careers. The church here was closed so we went on to Villamayor de Rio. Today, all the villages were just 3 to 4 kms. apart. This town was even smaller than the previous one, tho they had a two really nice hotels. We went in and got a couple of cervezas con limon and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed on for our final stretch of 4 kms into Belorado. The path today was right next to the highway, which made for not such a fun walk, but it was otherwise an easy walk. We saw some lovely butterflies and insects....and sunflowers!
We walked in to Belorado and to our hotel - Hotel Jacobeo. It's a very basic kinda place but the girl at reception is very sweet and most helpful. We met a couple from Aspen, CO - Mary Ann and Deirdre and their friend Gary, from Sausalito. We spent a pleasant hour chatting and drinking beer before heading up to our room. We will be heading in to the village to have dinner at Cuatro Cantones - sounds like fun :-)
Tomorrow promises to be very hot and very long - 15 miles into San Juan de Ortega! Curraaazzzyyy!!
Clearly made up but a fun hen story :) espcically the way you put it in words ...needless to say a very engaging blog . Loving it . Have a good walk tomorrow .Till then ...
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