Day 8-Najera to Santo Domingo

Today was our first slow day…. Only 13 miles:) We walked from Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzado. We are still in the La rioja region and we started with miles of grapes and then all of a sudden it went to grain fields. Inter mingled with the grain fields were sunflower fields as well.
Apparently La Rioja is a smaller region so at the end of the walk tomorrow we will be out of the region. CJ has been gobbling the grapes for two days now so he is bummed about leaving the region
We have entered a new bubble of people on the walk. It is kind of odd where you see people for a few days and then you find yourself in a new group of people. Some of our old acquaintances have speed up and some slowed down. When talking with people we seem to be about a day ahead of normal.
We met several new people today and the funny story is at some point CJ and I started talking politics and it went on for about 45 minutes or so. In front of us was a man who after listening to us the whole time slowed down and joined us and said “ Boys that is the most spirited debate I have heard so far on the Camino!” We then explained that we were father / son and he said well that does explain it.
He was from Southern Ireland and a nice guy. He and Cj continued to lament the stage of politics for the next 30 minutes or so. Then he says “Gents I must take a rest as I normally don’t walk this fast but I couldn’t stop listening to your conversation so I kept walking fast and now I need to slow down before I have a heart attack:). “
We continued on and we were a bit in front of him and started talking about the sunflower fields and he yelled out “ are you guys going to talk about sunflowers or something important!” It was hilarious!

So this part of the walk is rather flat or perhaps we are getting our legs in shape so the up and downs don’t seem to phase us. We are planning out the next several days and we will have another short day tomorrow followed by longer days after that.
We arrived in Santo Domingo around 130ish, checked into our accommodations , hand washed our clothes and then set out to find some food. Afterwards we turned tourists and walked around the town including a tour of their cathedral. Every town has one here:) you will see some pics from there but try to identify the one that is a box with a skull in it. Apparently that is St Jerome’s skull. Will need to research who St Jerome is:)

No pondering today as for some reason CJ and I had the same pace today so we were chatting the whole day. BTW we did run into the Irish man once again and let him know we solved World Peace since the last time we saw him. He got a good chuckle out of that!
In terms of health both of us are holding up well. CJ has had a few blisters but nothing major . I got some CBD cream for the knee and that is helping quite a bit and today was mostly pain free . Thanks to Karen Thurber ( former pilgrim turned advisor:)) for that suggestion as she sent me a pic of the cream and I walked into a pharmacia and they immediately knew what it was. Both of us have some minor shin related things going on but 2 short days should help that.

I will end with , for the record , prior to this trip I have walked 10 miles or more like maybe 5 times in my life all of which were in the month before I left for this trip. I now refer to 13 mile days as short days…. Go figure! As they say “ The Camino Provides! “

Ps I forgot to post a video yesterday so am posting today. We went up a rather steep hill and there we and other pilgrims were treated to a nice guitar player!Leia mais