Second Week on Camino

Hola from Belorado, Castilla y León, España!

We have been on the Camino for two full weeks as of today! Here are some stats:

13 days of walking

1 rest day

4 new pairs of shoes

15 blisters (and counting)

14,738,927 fields of wheat and/or grapevines (approximate)

237 kilometers (147 miles for the Americans among us)

 We are currently relaxing in a hostel in Belorado, a town over the border of our third Spanish province. As I looked for pictures to post if the past few days, I realized that I had a few pictures for Puente la Reina, our rest day town, that you all hadn't seen!

I think that Puente la Reina was one of my favorite towns, especially because of the beautiful ornate doors throughout the city - of course I may just be fond of it because it involved relaxing and not walking for a day!

 

Mike mentioned in his last post the bridge for which the city is named. Here it is- with us of course... We take a lot of selfies on this trip. 

On to more current times! Last time we checked in, we were in Torres del Río, and we walked there from a town called Villamayor de Monjardin.

I'm not sure if this panoramic picture will do it justice, but this was the view from our hostel window. We were talking to some folks yesterday about how used to the breathtaking landscapes we've gotten. It hardly seems possible, but walking every day through such beautiful scenery makes it easy to forget to look around. Luckily we can look back at the pictures and remind ourselves to appreciate these views!
 

One of the lovely things about the Camino is the enthusiasm with which the Spanish serve wine- we ordered the €10 "pilgrim menu" and the server plopped this entire bottle of rosé on the table for us to enjoy- no extra charge. Wine is often little cheapest beverage available... And to think this whole Camino thing is designed as a religious pilgrimage. 

From Torres del Río we walked on to Logroño, which is one of the larger cities we had stayed in. We had a delicious meal with our Irish friends (also teachers) and a chef from Nebraska, and that meal turned into drinks in the plaza outside of a huge cathedral. I know, I know, our lives are so hard ;)

We stopped for a quick pic by a lovely lake outside of Logroño. Our next town was Navarrete, which was an adorable little village made more adorable by the special pottery festival that was happening the day we arrived. Pottery is apparently a specialty of the region, and Michael Bublé albums are apparently very popular in Spanish fiestas. On repeat. We stayed in a tiny albergue with only six beds- just enough for us and our friends. 

We left Navarrete and headed to Najera, and on the way made another perro friend. This one was tiny and I wanted him. 

In Santo Domingo, one of the stops along the way, there's a huge cathedral that is very famous for a miracle that happened there in the Middle Ages... Something involving a chicken coming back to life, I don't remember, it's not important. What IS important is that the townsfolk to this day keep a live hen and rooster in the church in a special place. They were clucking their little chicken heads off when we came in the church.  

Also inexplicable was the intricate display of models that was housed within the church - carefully, even dare I say lovingly displayed, depicting scenes not from the life of Christ or the miracles of St Dominc, the church and town's namesake, but instead scenes from The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Comics, and other random pieces of fiction. In a church. Yes, this is real. 
 

We were excited to reconnect with some of our friends from the beginning of the Camino in the past few days, and to make new friends along the way too. One of my favorite nights so far was last night in Grañon, where we stayed in our first parochial albergue. We slept in the annex of the old cathedral on thin mats on the floor, and we paid whatever we could in donation. But my favorite part was the communal dinner- Mike and I offered to help make food, and we scrabbled together a kind of zucchini and potato latke with a very non traditional tomato sauce out of the items in the church pantry. We were the only Americans present, and some of the only English speakers, but everyone worked together on the dinner and enjoyed a really special night. The hopitaleros led us in a prayer after dinner in the upper balcony of the church, and it was altogether a beautiful evening. 

Although we miss all of you and although our feet ache, we are having such an amazing adventure. We go onward towards Burgos tomorrow, and we will take a train from there to León to make up for some lost time. Only three more weeks to make it to Santiago!

Much love and Buen Camino!

Meg and Mike