11 Azofra to Grañon

I never thought I’d be writing about chickens so much on the Camino. But here’s another chicken-themed post for you.

We’ve decided to try to get earlier starts because walking in the afternoon sun, especially when there is so little shade, is becoming quite tiresome and difficult. So we started walking about 6:45 in the morning and the ironic thing is - I was cold! But I would take that over the heat any day.

We were heading towards the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada which has a few interesting things in it.

First of all, it features the tallest tower in all of Rioja (the region where we are currently at) coming in at 70 meters. Just a fun fact to share.

Also, the cathedral is quite beautiful. 

It is named for “The Savior” but has the relics of the town’s namesake - St. Dominic of Calzada - who is known for helping pilgrims in the 11th century. 

He is also known for a miracle. The story goes thus:  A young pilgrim is falsely accused of theft in the city, and so he is sentenced to death at the gallows. After having been hanging for a while, his parents go to see him and are surprised when he begins to speak, telling them that Saint Dominic has saved his life. When they go to tell the local magistrate what has happened he responds, “Your son is as alive as the chicken in my stew.”  At that moment, the chickens that had been cooked begin to cluck for they too are alive. 

Because of the tradition, or legend, of this miracle there are till this day chickens that reside in the Cathedral.  Yes, during a moment of quiet prayer, you might just be interrupted by a chicken clucking.  It is said that they are descendants of the original cooked and then clucking chickens. Other relatives of the chickens are kept nearby and they are swapped out each month in the cathedral. You can’t make this stuff up folks. But the city has embraced it as there are chickens all over the place.

There is even a local pastry to commemorate the event. Quite tasty!

After admiring the chickens and the other beautiful art of the cathedral, we continued on to Grañon where we spent the night. We found a nice little Peruvian café for dinner and were able to meet up with two guys we had met our first night in Orisson. Also, sitting at the table right next to us, were two women from Dayton, Ohio. As they say, it’s a small world after all.

That’s it for now. Except that Dottorina Gallina tried to eat my gazpacho. What a pollo loco!

Buen Camino!

10 Navarrete to Azofra - 14 miles

 Today’s walk was 14 miles. 

Or at least it should have been. 

This morning started out like any other. In fact we got a fairly early start to try to beat the heat. 

After about 4 miles we made it to the first town which was Ventosa and stopped for breakfast. We started to walk out of town enjoying the scenery as normal. While walking through a vineyard area a farmer began shouting at us. Basically he asked if we were pilgrims on the Camino the Santiago. When we said yes he informed us that we were definitely NOT on the Camino de Santiago. Somehow, walking out of town, we just weren’t paying attention and got on a different road. Fortunately the farmer, named Pedro, gave us directions which we more or less understood and then he proceeded to drive up to where we needed to turn to show us the way. 

With Pedro’s help and the help of Google Maps we eventually found the Camino again, actually seeing it “below” us. However we went about two extra miles out of our way.

Eventually, we arrived in the next town of Nájera. There were two important things to note about the town. First of all we got ice cream.

Second, today is Rioja Day. Rioja is the name of the region which we are in, and today is a holiday here. I think I heard a pilgrim say it celebrates some victory over France, probably in the middle ages. At any rate, there was a pretty big fiesta happening in the town. We walked through it but knew that we had to go on to our final destination of Azofra where we are sleeping at tonight.

Buen Camino!