2012-09-17 Monday

2012-09-17 Monday

Santo Domingo de Calzada / Belorado

Camino Day 10. Today's segment is 23 Km. 

We hit the trail at 0740, after a breakfast of coffee with Spanish tortilla at a nearby bar.

It was not a pleasant segment, it was mostly a gravel road, parallel to a major road with a lot of truck traffic. We went thorough 4 or 5 small, unremarkable, villages, but only 2 had bars where you could stop and buy food or a cold drink. We bought sandwiches in one of them and stopped mid-way to have our lunch. 

We bumped into some of our acquaintances, but the stream of pilgrims had rarified a bit. We met again with some of the Brazilians: Angela, Eric, Jamil, and Osmar, Brazilians, with Gabi and Tina from Germany, with Antonio and Vipin from Canada, Peter and wife from England. We also met, for the first time, with Ana and Sarah from Finland. 

Romanesque church

Water fountain

Another church

Erico and Angela

Pilgrims backpacks, during a break in one of the villages

Bread for a later lunch

Paulo and Nancy, on a break

Paulo, Angela, Eric, Jamil, Erico

One of the best stretchs of this segment

Erico at one of the Camino's maps

Nancy and the house with flowers

Another house with flowers

Erico and Paulo made to Belorado

Since this segment was boring and we are better conditioned, we accelerated our pace and did the 23 Km in exactly 6 hrs. 

Belorado is a small town, only 2000 inhabitants, and it has no attractions. We checked in at the Pension Toñi, a small hostal, only 5 spartan rooms, but clean and functional. We took a quick shower and went out for a late lunch at 1430, at a nearby restaurant recommended by the innkeeper, an energetic young woman. 

We had an excellent lunch, washed down with a good wine. It was a long and relaxed lunch, and when we were drinking our "chupitos" after the meal, two guys, sitting at the next table, started to talk to us. When we told them that Paulo and I were Brazilians and Terry and Nancy were Americans; one of them, who looked like he had quite a few drinks with his lunch, said, in a halting and heavily accented English, that he is a retired mariner and had travelled all over the world. He asked Terry where in the US he was from, Terry said Delaware, a small state in the Atlantic cost of the US. The guy said "Delavare?, there is no Delavare!" Terry and Nancy tried to explain that it was in the mid-Atlantic coast of the US, just south of New Jersey, but the drunk guy was adamant saying that there is no "Delavare", that he knew the whole coast of the US, having  sailed to most of the ports in the Atlantic Coast, including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Newport News, but he never seen a "Delavare." Terry patiently tried to explain that if he sailed to Philadelphia he must have gone up Delaware Bay and, therefore, sailed along the coast of Delaware, but the guy was not buying it. Paulo and I almost fell of our chairs laughing, from them on we kept kidding Terry and Nancy that "Delavare" does not exist, that when they say they are from Delaware, people ask "Dela…where?" Paulo also delighted in asking people we came across in the Camino if they knew where Delaware was, off course few people did, it's a small state, and he always teased Terry and Nancy about that.

Vine riped tomatoes

Steak with Pimientos

The wine

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest, agreeing to meet again at 1800 to go out for a walk in town. I rested and iced my knee, Nancy got us ice from the restaurant, she asked the barmen to fill up her large Ziplock bag.

My taped up knee

We all met again at 1800 and  went out for a walk around the town center. There not much to see, and the main church was closed. We sat at a sidewalk table in a bar at the main square for a drink. Antonio and Vipin joined us at our table. Nancy wanted to drink something but was not sure of what she wanted, I suggested that she tries something unique to Spain, a jerez. She selected a sweet Jerez, Terry had a sip of her's and said that it was just "cherry." Antonio said that the proper name is "jerez," the English started calling it "cherry" because they could not quite pronounce "jerez" and proceeded to give a detailed explanation of it's origins and the different types of jerez. When I asked him how come he knows so much about jerez, he said that he's a wine collector, likes jerez, and has been a couple of times to Jerez de la Fronteira to buy it.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store to buy fruits for tomorrow. Terry and Nancy just wanted to eat some fruit this evening, instead of going out to eat, so Paulo and I bought a baguette, cheese, cooked ham, and a bottle of wine (Rioja Crianza, 90 points by Robert Parker for 6.50 Euros!) for our "dinner" at the hostal. We had a delicious evening meal. Terry joined us at our room for a glass of wine.

Our planned destination for Tomorrow was San Juan de Ortega, it is just 24 Km away, but the camino has 3 steep mountains, each one is a 650-700 meters climb. San Juan is a small village, only 20 inhabitants with a small peregrine albergue and only one small hostel,  we called it to make a reservation for tomorrow, but it was full. Our innkeeper helped us to find rooms at the next city, Ages, which is 3.6 Km further away, so tomorrow will be doing 27.6 Km with steep mountains. My left knee was aching so I decided to ship my backpack to our destination. Nancy will do the same.