Day 10 Najera to Santo Domingo

Najera to Azofra to Ciruena to Santo Domingo de la Calzado. 14.5 miles. This day of walking was strange. Beautiful countryside, with churches set against and partially carved into the mountains. However, walking through both of the towns on the way to Santo Domingo felt like walking through a movie set. Azifra had beautiful old buildings and homes, while Ciruena lacked any imagination at all. There was a golf course and then row after row of identical condo type buildings in four styles: army barracks, Swiss chalet, modern glass and some stucco-ish look. And not a single person to be seen other than pilgrims and the few people working the one bar/restaurant open in each town. Where are the people??? It was truly eerie - like walking through a ghost town. Our host that night said they are “old” generation towns where all the young people have left, and the remaining residents only come out for dinner.

But Santo Domingo made up for it - a vibrant pretty town that clearly loves Saint Domingo, the Builder of Bridges. He was a hermit that had a dream telling him to make the way for pilgrims easier and safer, so he started building roads, the town and as you can guess, bridges. He was the OG recycler, using old Roman roads and buildings for his construction.

The Cathedral was magnificent - and has the unusual addition of a fancy chicken coop. The hen and rooster (one of several apparently) are supposedly descendants from the miracle birds Saint Domingo brought back to life to save a boy from hanging. Boy was falsely accused of stealing after he rejected a town daughter, and Domingo pled his case. The constable said he could no more save the boy than he could bring the chicken he was eating back to life. Domingo accepted the challenge and both boy and chicken lived on.Read more