Ok...Still missing bits and bobs here and there, as the internet isn´t always as available as I´d like.
Yesterday was about a 21km day into St. Domingo ... an amazing city. St. Domingo is a city sitting in a wide bowl like valley of fields. It´s claim to fame is having a cage with chickens in the cathedral. Why? Apparently to commemorate a miracle of a young man, falsely accused and hung, being resurrected. The mayor refused to believe that he´d been brought back to life, and said it was as likely as the roast chicken on his plate getting up and living on. So, needless to say...that is exactly what happened. So now there are always two chickens kept in the back in a rather large cage. They are also supposedly changed out every two weeks, guess so they can walk the Camino.
While this seems to be the thing that everyone makes note of, the actual church/cathedral is one of the most interesting ones I´ve ever seen. Spencer and I were walking back from a beer, while Rosalie went in search of her bag, when I saw an arrow pointing towards the entrace of the cathedral. Now after day in and day out following arrows, I guess rather like Pavlovs dogs, we went in. We found another world. I´ve never seen fortifications in a church. Or amazing giant sized Ipad like touch screen displays that allow you to look at an altar piece that soars above your head nearly 40 feet! Needless to say when I can finally put up pics, you´ll see what I mean. We´d all intended to go take naps and then cook something for dinner (cheaper and more fun)but wound up spending nearly 2 to 2.5 hours wandering thru the church and also up the bell tower.
The bell tower is a completely separate building. The wide stone staircase simply goes on forever, especially if you are a road weary pilgrim. The top was worth every single calorie and minute it took me to climb up to it. From there you can see miles and miles behind you, and the same in all directions. We could see the rolling hills we´d be walking thru today. It makes it easy to see what a great defensive spot this was.
Dinner at our Alburge in the Convent was fun, as Renee from Nebraska joined us, as well as Colum and Jane from Ireland. At the end, Hugo, I think from France also joined us for dessert as it turned out we´d all bought desserts without telling the others. I´d made a sort of Bolognese sauce with spirals. Renee prepped a lovely fresh salad. Someone got a bottle of wine, we had bread with olive oil for dipping and some Dorito chips too. For after Spencer had bought strawberries and ice cream. I´d grabbed Flan at the SuperMercado, and Renee got lovely chicken like pastries that are a local specialty, filled with apricot jam.
I guess I should be thankful we actually did have to walk 24km today to get to Belorado...just to burn off the calories!
Clocks ticking so quickly, todays walk was different, the hills were more rolling than steep. There were clouds hovering just above the hills off to the south. The hills were softer and beautifully covered with the greenest wheat. There were also fields of light lavender poppies! Every so often we´d pass thru fields of potatoes, well on their way. Ummmm makes me think of the wonderful tortillas here.
Tortillas here in Spain aren´t the thin flat breads we think of in the US. They are the most delicous potatoe and onion filled omlettes. Sometimes they have jamon or chorizo too. They are so soul satisfying to a tired and hungry pilgrim. They are also ofen quite cheap. Yesterday in the Super Mercado, we discovered jarred prepped potatoes, in olive oil! This means we may be able to make our own tortilla without the work! Again, thank God for walking, or I ´d be buying a second plane ticket to come home.
On the topic of weight, I am definitely loosing weight and toning everything up! The pants I left with are loose and have the waist buttons as tight as they will go. The capris will need work soon or I´m in danger of becoming the naked or nearly naked pilgrim.
Love you all...miss you all and still would not miss this for the world!
Yesterday was about a 21km day into St. Domingo ... an amazing city. St. Domingo is a city sitting in a wide bowl like valley of fields. It´s claim to fame is having a cage with chickens in the cathedral. Why? Apparently to commemorate a miracle of a young man, falsely accused and hung, being resurrected. The mayor refused to believe that he´d been brought back to life, and said it was as likely as the roast chicken on his plate getting up and living on. So, needless to say...that is exactly what happened. So now there are always two chickens kept in the back in a rather large cage. They are also supposedly changed out every two weeks, guess so they can walk the Camino.
While this seems to be the thing that everyone makes note of, the actual church/cathedral is one of the most interesting ones I´ve ever seen. Spencer and I were walking back from a beer, while Rosalie went in search of her bag, when I saw an arrow pointing towards the entrace of the cathedral. Now after day in and day out following arrows, I guess rather like Pavlovs dogs, we went in. We found another world. I´ve never seen fortifications in a church. Or amazing giant sized Ipad like touch screen displays that allow you to look at an altar piece that soars above your head nearly 40 feet! Needless to say when I can finally put up pics, you´ll see what I mean. We´d all intended to go take naps and then cook something for dinner (cheaper and more fun)but wound up spending nearly 2 to 2.5 hours wandering thru the church and also up the bell tower.
The bell tower is a completely separate building. The wide stone staircase simply goes on forever, especially if you are a road weary pilgrim. The top was worth every single calorie and minute it took me to climb up to it. From there you can see miles and miles behind you, and the same in all directions. We could see the rolling hills we´d be walking thru today. It makes it easy to see what a great defensive spot this was.
Dinner at our Alburge in the Convent was fun, as Renee from Nebraska joined us, as well as Colum and Jane from Ireland. At the end, Hugo, I think from France also joined us for dessert as it turned out we´d all bought desserts without telling the others. I´d made a sort of Bolognese sauce with spirals. Renee prepped a lovely fresh salad. Someone got a bottle of wine, we had bread with olive oil for dipping and some Dorito chips too. For after Spencer had bought strawberries and ice cream. I´d grabbed Flan at the SuperMercado, and Renee got lovely chicken like pastries that are a local specialty, filled with apricot jam.
I guess I should be thankful we actually did have to walk 24km today to get to Belorado...just to burn off the calories!
Clocks ticking so quickly, todays walk was different, the hills were more rolling than steep. There were clouds hovering just above the hills off to the south. The hills were softer and beautifully covered with the greenest wheat. There were also fields of light lavender poppies! Every so often we´d pass thru fields of potatoes, well on their way. Ummmm makes me think of the wonderful tortillas here.
Tortillas here in Spain aren´t the thin flat breads we think of in the US. They are the most delicous potatoe and onion filled omlettes. Sometimes they have jamon or chorizo too. They are so soul satisfying to a tired and hungry pilgrim. They are also ofen quite cheap. Yesterday in the Super Mercado, we discovered jarred prepped potatoes, in olive oil! This means we may be able to make our own tortilla without the work! Again, thank God for walking, or I ´d be buying a second plane ticket to come home.
On the topic of weight, I am definitely loosing weight and toning everything up! The pants I left with are loose and have the waist buttons as tight as they will go. The capris will need work soon or I´m in danger of becoming the naked or nearly naked pilgrim.
Love you all...miss you all and still would not miss this for the world!
I remember storks nesting in a lot of those bell towers. Don't know if you've seen any?
ReplyDeleteThose chunky Spanish omelettes are great, aren't they!