Camino Frances from Saint Jean to Sahagun, then a week in Zamora
April 24: Travel and Walking Day, Nájara to Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Miles walked: 6.7
Cumulative miles walked: 122.5
Stairs climbed equivalence: 0 (but lots of fairly steep downhill). We are on the 4th floor in our hotel but (yay!) there is an elevator, so I won’t get any stair walking in at the hotel. However, Charlie is taking the stairs!
Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where we are tonight, might be translated Santo Domingo of the Road. Or perhaps Saint Sunday of the Road.
The 13 miles between Nájara and Santo Domino was more than we semi-pilgrims wanted to do, so from our hotel this morning we headed for the taxi stand by the bus stop, got a taxi, and asked him to take us to a point 7 miles along the Camino.
The point where we asked him to let us off was a place we remembered from being here in 2013 and 2014: a large golf course surrounded by hundreds (thousands?) of condominiums of various styles. In 2013, only 5 years after the 2008 economic collapse that was devastating to Spain, this place was a ghost town. Before the collapse, there had been a huge building boom in Spain but then the money ran out and we saw so many deserted constructions sites then. This place was one of them and was particularly shocking to us. So, we were curious to see it 13 years later. We were glad to see it is no longer a ghost town. Most of the condos looked like they were being maintained pretty well. I asked the taxi driver about it and he said it’s usually fairly empty this time of the year but in the summer it fills up. So, it is now a vacation destination for Spaniards, because of the golf course. Here is the video Charlie made about it in 2013: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jAUUPEjnhH53Z6JR8
Condos by the golf course today. There’s even a cute little playground and a swimming pool.A steady stream of peregrinos walking into Santo DomingoThe classic Camino photo. I particularly love this part of the walk. Strangely, though we are still in La Rioja, no vineyards today, which is fine with me!For the sake of truth in advertising, we do walk through some places like this, industrial area before getting into town.But Santo Domino, population 6400, is a vibrant little town. This is in front of the bar where we are now blogging.Here’s the inside. We walked around town a while to find this bar — looking for one with good music and this is a winner! We love blogging and listening to good music. Today, an interesting mixture of American and Spanish pop music, seems mostly from the 80s. Love is All Around (Wet Wet Wet), Like a Prayer (Madonna), I Was Made for Loving You (Kiss), I Will Love Again (Lara Fabian), I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston), Friends Will Be Friends (Queen) can be perfect if you are in the right mood. The bartender has been singing along. The Spanish seem to really like American music. Who can blame them?We really like our hotel: Rey Pedro I. She proudly showed us some exposed wall in the sitting room downstairs — part of the city wall from the 14th century.And on a sad note. We thought we’d switch things up and have Indian food at the place next to our hotel. Disappointing food, but the sad part was what was showing on the TV while we ate. It’s hard to get away from the depressing news. Here is the Spanish president responding to Trump’s attempt to get Spain out of NATO.To give you an idea of the bar culture in Spain. In Google maps I typed in “bar near me” and this is what I got. We checked out about half these bars looking for the one with the right music! Kind of embarrassing just poking your head in the door and then leaving, but worth it. Most places just had televisions going. As Charlie mentioned in a previous post, bars here are really community gathering places. At least three I poked my head into had old men gathered around a table playing card games. Currently there is a family in the table next to us with a child. These are really tapas and coffee bars that happen to also sell alcohol. You rarely see heavy drinking in Spain. Public drunkenness meets strong disapproval. PS. The red line at the top of the map is the Camino. It goes through the old town and misses a lot of the vibrancy of Santo Domingo. However, it is a camino stage town so I’m sure many pilgrims explore the town well.
2 thoughts on “April 24: Travel and Walking Day, Nájara to Santo Domingo de la Calzada”
Most of the pilgrims seem to have rain covers over their backpacks, even though it didn’t appear to be raining. Is this just an easy way to carry them? Are they on “just in case?” It would seem to make it a nuisance to get into your pack for something.
It actually had been raining earlier. We had our raincoats on for a while. It never rained hard, just sprinkles but enough to get out the rain gear. So that’s why people had on pack covers today. You’re right, people don’t typically have on the pack covers unless it is raining or about to rain. When I was noticing the pack covers today, I said something to Charlie about how it is so nice not to deal with pack covers and rain skirts and raincoats under our backpacks since we have gotten our Altus rain coats that go over everything. They sure simplify things.
Most of the pilgrims seem to have rain covers over their backpacks, even though it didn’t appear to be raining. Is this just an easy way to carry them? Are they on “just in case?” It would seem to make it a nuisance to get into your pack for something.
It actually had been raining earlier. We had our raincoats on for a while. It never rained hard, just sprinkles but enough to get out the rain gear. So that’s why people had on pack covers today. You’re right, people don’t typically have on the pack covers unless it is raining or about to rain. When I was noticing the pack covers today, I said something to Charlie about how it is so nice not to deal with pack covers and rain skirts and raincoats under our backpacks since we have gotten our Altus rain coats that go over everything. They sure simplify things.