An even more spectacular day!

We are now in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, which is where there is a rooster and hen in the cathedral because of the miracle of Santo Domingo. But the day just had many highlights. We set out from Nájera through the red cliffs that hang over the town…then we continued through vineyards, in every possible space on the hills, and then there were some grain fields,mixed in, with their bright green new growth.

First I have to say we had a superb breakfast, with freshly squeezed orange juice - there was a machine there, and muesli, and good coffee, AND one special mention is that the croissants in Spain are now at the French standard in my opinion!! I don’t know what happened, but they are perfect…so that was a good start.

As we walked we talked to different people - a couple of girls,from Taiwan (but they were so protected from the sun in wouldn’t know them on the street, a man from Singapore, who had an umbrella hat (more sun protection!), and some nice American girls (aged about Rachel and Cathy’s age) , so we had fun and chatted. Then the vineyards disappeared and the grain fields took over and we were surrounded by bright green on all sides….this is the area where the pics on all Camino books get taken I reckon…you see the Camino stretching out into the distance and we climbed some long slow climbs…at the top of the longest climb there is a perfect lunch area which I had been promising R&R, and thank goodness it appeared! And to our astonishment there was no one else there (usually you are lucky to get a,seat we found…) but maybe people had stopped before, or,just didn’t notice…so after lunch we still had a third of the way to go, and after passing through a very sterile newly created town we again had book cover fields of green (the books sometimes had the pics in autumn when the green is brown post harvest stubble)…so today was spectacular and I took a video of the green surroundings as we walked…which I will post.

So we finally arrived, and had to find our accommodation as it was new to all of us. Rach found it on google which was more accurate than our other instructions, and we are staying at a little “boutique” hostal which used to be a mill, and has all the thick walls and beams in the ceiling.

So we gave ourselves an hour to recover from the quite full on walk, to shower and wash etc, and we met and went to the cathedral (only a few minutes away) and had an inspection in the cathedral…huge and beautiful, and of course you are drawn to the hen house, and we were there at exactly the time that a man was there changing the guard - he took the 2 resident chooks, and brought 2 more to replace them…they always rotate them, but it caused much crowing of roosters and excitement. I was there when the man came out with the 2 exiting chooks, and he posed for me!
Our next highlight was a quick climb up the bell tower, as there are wonderful views from there, and it is always fabulous to be up with the bells…we could see the path where we came in, and could name the snow capped peak we have been seeing for days…San Lorenzo…

Then we hot tailed it to dinner in our hostal where we had almost the best meal yet! For me anyway! Not gourmet exactly, but homemade tasty and perfect….i finished every course..
Started with zucchini soup, then “chicken in its juice” which was tasty and falling off the bone, with just a few French fries, and then I had arroz con leche, my favourite rice pudding..coupled with the house red, and water, all perfect, and I will put in photos for you Paul!

After dinner R&R went to a mass and I came up to my room to write up the day…they have since popped in to debrief, and now I’m finished I think! Today’s tally is 23.45 kms and 35,110 steps…and I have to say that I think I’ve got my Camino legs…I felt fabulous powering up the hills, and don’t even feel tired now!Baca lagi