12 Grañon to Villafranca Montes de Oca - 17 miles

 Early start in the morning = late coffee.

To once again try to get some mileage done before the afternoon heat settled in, we were out the door by 6:15 this morning. This is still later than a lot of pilgrims. And it meant that we would get coffee and breakfast on the way. After all, there were several small towns we would be going through and each was only a few kilometers apart. Unfortunately, I learned that shops don’t open early on Saturday mornings.  Ooops. 

However, we did see a beautiful sunrise. 

And we passed into the next region: Castilla y Leon. 

One of the small towns we went through was Viloria de Rioja. It is the birthplace of Saint Dominic - our a chicken miracle Saint from yesterday. 

Eventually we made it to Bellorado where I found a good cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I spent a little time just walking around this cute little town and stopped by the main church. Definitely a few interesting things going on there. No, I don’t know who the saint is.

Then, once again, it was time to make the final stretch of the day. Today was a long day about 17 miles and it was starting to get a little warm and my feet are starting to hurt. But low and behold in the town of Villambistia it was as if the heavens open because I came across a café that was advertising smoothies. I got the raspberry mango… 

…and that was enough to get me to our final destination of Villafranca Montes de Oca where we had the whole afternoon to just rest and read and relax and hang out with other pilgrims.

Buen Camino!

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!