Camino de Santiago LITE: Day 11 (Camino II): Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

We make a spur-of-the-moment decision to make a detour to nearby San Millan and visit monasteries of Suso and Yuso, which are on the UNESCO heritage list. The helpful restaurant worker where we are having breakfast calls a taxi for us (how she ended up here from Romania is another long story). The driver fortunately speaks good English and I negotiate a round trip of 35km with some time to visit the monasteries for 35 Euros, a good deal. On our way out of Najera, we see a long line of Africans to be served breakfast at a church. The driver explains that they are coming here during the grape harvest season but there isn't enough work for them. He goes out of his way to offer explanation on historic sites in the area, and I am thinking this taxi driver is better than some of private guides we have hired in the past.

Suso Monastery: "birthplace of the Spanish language" - Castilian Spanish was first written down here.

Yuso Monastery

Yuso: Birth of a... nation? Language?

Berceo: Gonzalo de Berceo, a monk poet, was born here.

Our taxi driver taking us to a field near Hermita de Nuestra Senora de Arcos. He picks up a random piece of Roman-era artifact. Tricio in background.

We return to the same point on the Camino in Najera about two hours later. That wipes out any advantage we have over faster walkers who stayed at Ventosa or any earlier stop yesterday. But today's route is only 21km and we happily start at 11am, except the blister in my right foot is becoming a bit sore. The Korean ladies have rented a bike for this stage. A good idea to save some time... and legs. I heard people do this for the Burgos to Leon section that lies ahead, as it is flat and relatively monotonous. Only two towns are along the way today, Azofra and Ciruena. The wide tracks are largely boring but there is some interesting scenery to be encountered.

Leaving Najera

Harvesting grapes

Red soil of La Rioja which can turn into mud in heavy rain. Thank God we haven't had that problem.

A huge field of... turnips? No, sugar beets.

A good route to bike today, maybe except for this long uphill leading to Ciruena

near Ciruena

Keep walking. Toward Santo Domingo.

On the way to Santo Domingo

near Santo Domingo

Finally, Santo Domingo de la Calzada emerges. "St Dominique of the Roadway" was an illiterate who was rejected by the very monasteries in St Millan we saw this morning. His devotion to the pilgrims and improving the physical route to Santiago constitutes much of the history of this town. There is a sprawling suburb but finding our hotel is easy. The parador is located next to the Cathedral, so just look for the tall tower. We arrive in time to visit the cathedral which includes not only the elaborate tomb of St Dominique but also a chicken coop with a live hen and a live cock. Alas, many pilgrims pass through here without seeing the cathedral or even hearing about the legend/miracle of the chickens, even though the hen theme throughout the town is unmistakable. During dinner at a fine restaurant just off the church square, the well-dressed Australian women at the next table who turn out to be pilgrims are wondering about the large fields with root vegetables they passed today. We volunteer to tell them it is probably the turnips but are corrected by the friendly server that it is actually sugar beets.