30 April 2008

As has been the last few days, we started out with a cool wind and a clear blue sky. Today we were a bit later than usual because we stopped for breakfast at the local bar which was serving desayono from 7:00. Danielle woke me up again an hour early than we had planned. I´m going to have to teach her to tell the time! We finally hit the road at 7:30 at the end of a long trail of pilgrims. The road was good and dry until we encountered a section that construction trucks were using. Just before we got there a huge tanker watered down the path reducing it to a sticky muddy mess. Thankfully, we soon got past that section and it was dry again. The surface of the Camino was made up of rocks of various sizes. One had to watch the ground carefully to be sure you did not step on a loose rock and take a tumble.


The Camino, now in the Rioja provence of Spain meanders through fields of hay and vineyards as far as the eye can see. The rolling hills and valleys make for a spectacular sight. For most of the day, we could see a range of snow-capped mountains in the distance. They are probably part of the Pyrenees. We went through Cirueña, a small town where we stopped for a cappucino and a zumo de naranjha for Danielle.



It is interesting how these towns appear in the distance, dominated by the church in the centre, and then get bigger as we approach. Sometimes they disappear completely in the valley and you wonder where they went! We did not make it all the way to Grañon as we had planned but stopped at noon at a fair sized town called Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The albergue here is quite nice, and we were worried that, had we gone on to Grañon, the limited number of spaces in the small town would all be gone. So here we are in Santo D de la C. The plan (such as it is) is to leave early and go on to Belorado 23kms from here tomorrow. Perhaps today is not the day to teach Danielle to tell the time as we will have to be up early.