Santo Domingo

Took the slow stroll a mere 7 km to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. This was to stop some new blisters from growing and let them dry up, to line myself up for 6 12km days into Burgos and to take a bit of extra time to see the sites in Santo Domingo.

I was in town by ten o'clock along with two ladies from Minnesota that had been at last night's pilgrims dinner. We spent a good two hours chatting, touring the cathedral (which like Pamplona was a must see) and having a stroll around town. After deciding they liked the idea of a 7km day as well, they headed off by taxi to their next nights accommodation to catch up with their friend who wanted to walk 30km.

Saint Domingo was a friend to pilgrims and instead of joining the monastery he set about trying to makes pilgrims lives better. He was a practical fellow and built roads and bridges. He was also apparently skilled at reincarnation and brought back to life a innocent pilgrim who was sentenced to hang. The local councillor, when told that the boy was alive, declared that he was as alive as the chickens used in his chicken soup lunch. The chickens in his soup then apparently started clucking. Since this time descendants of said chickens have been kept in the cathedral and are sometimes released at festivals!?!

These qualities clearly made Santo Domingo very popular and his cathedral (which was originally started in 1158) very rich which in 2022 makes for an interesting cathedral and museum. Generously they can still afford to turn the lights on so you can see all of God's glory whereas many smaller church's require a donation for the lights to go on.

The Spanish are very conscious of wasted electricity. I understood this would be the case due to the current rising cost of power (thanks Putin!) but this has clearly been a focus for quite some time. Every type of accommodation I have stayed at, every bar, cafe or public toilet has timers on the lights. Apparently Spanish people can be very quick in the loo because I only needed to turn the light on 15 times the other day. Blokes beware as swinging around in the dark trying to find a light switch could be a real disaster. Needless to say you are often surprised to find yourself in the dark with no idea where the light switch is and if you're lucky some widely waving arms will trigger a sensor but sometimes the sensor or a switch are nowhere to be found.

Tonight I'm staying in a little bit of luxury at a Parador. More about that in tomorrow's post.Okumaya devam et