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| | Camino de Santiago-Day 1 Santo Domingo, WW | | | |
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Camino de Santiago-Day 1 Santo Domingo, WW
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| Hiking | 4.29 Miles |
356 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.29 Miles | | | |
| 356 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | and finally, it begins. After our 1/2 day at Versailles we boarded a plane for Madrid and then a bus ride to Burgos, arriving around 9:30PM. We walked with our luggage as a ferocious storm was starting; it was only a little more than a half-mile; that is, if you know where you're going. Needless to say, we did find our way but were thoroughly drenched. The next day we just toured the town in our area. I also joined our Road Scholar tour group for a quick afternoon tour.
Camino de Santiago(sometimes also referred to as St. James’s Way, with nearly a quarter million pilgrims now annually follow any one of the routes to Santiago, some hiking just the minimum 100 kilometers necessary to earn the “certificate” for having completed the trail.)
- Day One Ciruena to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. This is the luxurious way to hike the Camino with Road Scholar. After a short bus ride past the caves and monastery/church of ERMITA VIRGEN DE LA PEÑA of TOSANTOS and many fields of various crops, we arrived at Bar Jacobeo in Cirueña, La Rioja for our first of many "coffee routines" (which included bathroom stops). What I found so interesting was the coffee shops were also bars and usually always had an ice-cream freezer too. I think it is an ingenious idea to combine the two. The drink of choice in the mornings was usually a coffee con leche.
Cirueña was founded around 972, as were many of the villages we would visit or pass through. It is rather hard to wrap my head around that. And then it was off to start our Camino de Santiago as we headed out of town past an old monastery. The temp was a sunny 53.5 degrees with 78% humidity. We turned left at the Hops field and headed west for Santo Domingo on a road between fields, planted and not. The soil looked very rich. There were also sunflower fields, we saw many of these in France as well. There were also views to mountains on both sides of this wide valley (Sierra de Cantabria to the north and Sierra de la Demanda on the south). In fact, I spent so much time researching the mountains is why this report and others are so delayed. The range to the north looks to have some great hiking.
As we crested a small hill, the views opened up to Santo Domingo and its Cathedral tower. Unfortunately, I experienced a bad case of diahhrea for the rest of the hike so it took a lot from it. Thankfully, this only happened once. A few months ago, when I increased a med, sadly this is a more common occurence. The Camino takes you right through the middle of town on flat cobblestone past hostels and shops (including a hiking shop) and directly to The Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada named after Saint Dominic de la Calzada, who aided the pilgrims travelling through the district. Dominic died in 1109. He was buried in the village church, which became a collegiate church later in the 12th century.
I missed part of the tour of the fabulous Cathedral  so my video is from my wandering. You will see much of it in the video. You've heard the saying, "You've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all." certainly doesn't fit with this cathedral as there were chickens involved. I learned a lot about cathedrals on this trip. For example, much of the art work tells a story as many people couldn't read or write. Thus, you have to look closely at certain things like the tops of the capital pillars to appreciate the fine carving showing you a story.
We had lunch. Oh, there were 19 of us and two guides, Carlota and Blanca. We had a very nice modern bus and a great bus driver, Jose. We would all be together for 13 days. After a drive further east, passing by Hervias with the Tolono Mountains rising above we arrived at the Bodegas Marqués de Arviza Winery in Fuenmayor. It is a traditional family winery and the second oldest one producing red wines in La Rioja. Its facilities date back to 1874 and are built over more than 500 meters (1,640 feet) of original 16th and 17th century “calados” (underground cellars).
We got a fabulous tour including down and down into the ancient cellars. In the tasting salon, based on the description of their wine making, we figured this would be the best wine we ever tasted, but that was not the case. I did like the name of their best selling wine, El Tractor. In fact, I found I much preferred the white wines we had while in Spain.
Needless to say, the videos tell most of the rest of the story as I tried to include more interpretive information. I did use AI to help with text to speech when the guides weren't using Whispers.
Day One, Burgos cathedral and walkabout [ youtube video ] and [ youtube video ]
Day Two, to Santo Domingo including hike [ youtube video ]
Santo Domingo including Cathedral [ youtube video ]
Fuenmayor and winery tour [ youtube video ] and on the way back we learned a little about the way grapevines are grown; goblet vs Espalier. |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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