Day 42 – Santa Domingo de la Calzada

I committed a petty larceny today.

Thanks to the pressure applied by my sister and former colleague (aka my nemesis), I ate a grape from the vineyard today. It tasted like guilt and shame. I just hope the poor farmer can survive.

Today we walked through mostly open farmland with no trees. The wind was blowing really hard, so it made the cool temps feel quite cold. I only had to walk 12 miles, which helped.

Bill, how do you pick the towns where you stay?

For France, there aren’t a ton of choices, so I just went with the obvious stops.

In Spain, I wanted to pick interesting stops, and the places at which most pilgrims may stop. That way I increased the likelihood I would be in the same towns as my new friends. I also wanted decent lodging. The small villages don’t have a whole lot of that.

It really wasn’t too hard picking since most guidebooks suggest stops and they generally agree with each other on about 80% of the locations.

View of last night’s town of Nájara.
The view from my bed in Nájara. Notice the special platform for the birds’ nest.
Mural in Nájara. It’s begging to be filled in. Maybe “Did you steal the farmer’s grapes?” And “No, my friends and family wouldn’t want me to do that.”
Pilgrim sculpture outside of Santa Domingo. It’s totally flat, but it looks almost 3D.
A lot of the landscape looked like this today.
A professional bike race started in my finishing town of Santa Domingo today. I saw the caravan of buses and the police motorcycles driving away as I approached the town, but I missed the cyclists and festivities. They were tearing down things when I arrived.
Church in Santa Domingo.
Video: Today’s weather.

5 thoughts on “Day 42 – Santa Domingo de la Calzada

  1. You could have left the farmer a Euro for the grape! Or maybe the wind blew so hard that it conveniently fell off the vine into your waiting hand. That’s the one I’d go with!!

  2. Your petty larceny confession reminded me of the quote by Oscar Wilde “I can resist everything except temptation.” In your case, the challenge was resisting the peer pressure to inform us, as a vicarious treat, about the taste of Spanish wine grapes. Thanks for sharing your journey!

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