Day 17 - Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado

574 km to Santiago de Compostela

Santo Domingo de la Calzada lived in the XI century.  He was rejected by the Benedictines so he became a hermit.  Seeing pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela go by with great difficulty he decided to help, first by building a wooden bridge over the river Oja.  He continued his works all his life by building a calzada or causeway, a hospital and a church for pilgrims, replacing the wooden bridge with a stone bridge which is now called el puente del santo or the saint's bridge.  The town grew arount the church and later took the name of the saint.

We left town crossing the river over the Saint's bridge.  The first landmark is the cross of the valiant men.  It is said that in the middle ages there was a feud between a man from Santo Domingo and another one from Grañon over a disputed land. The man from Grañon won and a modern steel cross now marks the place of the duel.

The Camino is not as interesting as other days.  Most of the walking is by a busy highway, very small villages every 3 or 4 km and mostly walking up the hill.  We passed through Grañon, Redecilla del Camino, Castildelgado, Viloria de la Rioja (where Santo Domingo was born), and Vilamayor del Rio. 

Soon after Grañon we crossed from La Rioja into Castilla and Leon.  The land of castles or castillos.

I  was so tired I wanted to stop  at Vilamayor but when we got there we found both the albergue and the casa rural closed.  That meant we had to walk a other 5 km to Belorado. In total we walked 26 km, a new record for us.

What was different this time was that when we got to the iron cross, la Cruz de los Valientes, we met there our old friends from South Africa: Hendrik and Sophia and they introduced us to another couple from Calgary; Karen and Dave.  From then on we would be leapfrogging each other or taking breaks with them all day.  Once in Belorado we ended in the same pension with Karen and Dave and we had a fun dinner all six of us together.

The good news, the bathroom in the pension we are staying has scales.  It looks like I have lost 11 pounds and my GF has lost 8 pounds.

Now to bed early because tomorrow we get to do this all over again.

Today we celebrate Saint Joseph, patron of the families.  Saint Joseph pray for our families and for us.