Day 10: Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Wendy)

Fairly uneventful day today, as we walked another 21 km through mostly flat farmland with a couple of quite steep climbs thrown in for good measure.  We ended the day in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a town founded in the 12th century by a monk who devoted his life to creating roads, hospitals, bridges, and other infrastructure to make life easier for the pilgrims. This funky metal sculpture (a popular format around here) shows a silhouette of St Dominic inside a bridge truss.

The Camino was very crowded today, relatively speaking, since we were starting “on stage” (e.g., where the guidebooks and apps recommend you start/stop). In fact, we saw a few people today who stayed at the same albergue with us on that first night in St. Jean Pied du Port whom we hadn’t seen since.

Having a crowded road (we’re talking maybe one or two dozen people ahead of us and the same number behind) is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it’s nice to meet new folks and reconnect with others you’ve met along the way. We just had a glass of wine/beer and snacks in one of the plazas and ran into at least 12 people we’ve stayed with or talked to at some point. Also had a long conversation with Doug from Colorado, a retired navy guy who told me all about the 274 day world cruise he and his much younger wife just did two weeks before coming on the Camino. He may be the first Trump supporter we’ve met on this adventure.

So crowded roads can be good. But it can also make heeding the call of nature a bit harder, especially in the wide open fields with little shade (i.e., tree to duck behind) that I mentioned yesterday. And it’s a bit harder to get in a meditative zone with so many others around.

There were fewer good places to stop for a snack or a break today as well. At one point, we just plopped on the side of the road to eat an orange (surprisingly delicious here) and some almonds, staring out at a field of dead sunflowers.

My knees are slowly healing, but I’ve still been searching for a bathtub to do an Epsom salt soak. Last night, I thought we’d booked a room with a private bath, but it was actually just a private room with communal bathrooms.

Today, I specifically booked a room in a hotel run by nuns in an old monastery/abbey because the website advertised rooms with a “bañera” (bathtub). Sadly, no such luck. Our granny chic room—with a bonus crucifix!—only has a shower. 

We did get the experience of being checked in by a little old lady nun who is all of 5 feet tall and speaks no English. Can’t wait to see what they will serve us for our menu de peregrinos tonight, which for some ungodly reason doesn’t happen until 9:00 pm.