Grañon

We started out early as usual, with coffee on the way out of town. Then walked for a couple of hours before stopping for breakfast at Cirueña. Then on to Santo Domingo de Calzada where we stopped at the cathedral. It’s an interesting town with a history of some interesting miracles that may have occurred ages ago. There is a chicken house shrine that is associated with one of the miracles. It’s complicated, ask me about it when I get back. The cathedral has built up streets all around it, so it’s impossible to get a picture that shows the whole building.

Our original goal for the day was 9 miles to Santo Domingo de Calzada. But after the cathedral we miraculously felt up to going on to the next town. So we ended up at Grañon with 12 miles under our belts for the day. We’re starting to get into shape! We need to get an average of 10 miles a day in order to finish at Santiago de Compostela in time to meet our wives in Portugal near the 18th. We will probably do some longer days in order to have layover days in some of the more interesting cities. We will use the postal service option to have your backpack forwarded to an albergue so we can do those long days. In the end, if we want to take more time, we will. It’s about the journey.

Interesting note, we’re at the west edge of Rioja province and suddenly the vineyards are gone and it’s all dry land wheat farming we’re walking through. Not as interesting as the vineyards, but still a very pleasant countryside. A long hill we ascended today had a nice surprise at the top. Way out in the middle of nowhere someone built a resting place with concrete lounge chairs. These people are really supportive of the Camino.

Tonight we’re staying at a “Donativo” albergue, where you pay what you feel is appropriate. A communal dinner and grab as you go breakfast are included. It’s clean, but has a lot of “character”. So far every place we have stayed has accommodated my travel CPAP needing a plug in.

Got a call in with Debbie tonight, which was nice. And I think I’ll be able to upload 2 days posts that I didn’t have internet for yesterday.
Heading to bed now.
Good Night,
PhilRead more