View from my hotel room

In Burgos. More later.

Laguardia to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Since today’s ride was relatively short, we took our time in the morning. After a leisurely breakfast (see photo in previous post), we took a walk around the walled city of Laguardia. It only takes about 20 minutes to walk the entire perimeter, but the views are impressive in every direction.

It was about 10:30 when we set off at a leisurely pace. Not far into the ride, we found the police operating a sobriety checkpoint. Apparently some of the winery tourists get a very early start.

Coffee at Cafe Suiza, Haro

We stopped in the small city of Haro for a leisurely coffee and enjoyed a variety of cookies that Philipp and Enrico had bought the night before in Laguardia. We sat on the terrace at Café Suiza and simply enjoyed the beautiful day. Incidentally, the weather was perfect – sunny, but not hot. At Haro, and then again at a smaller town, I saw storks who nested atop churches. Apparently we will see lots more along the way. (I don’t think that I have ever seen a stork in the wild before.)

From Laguardia to Haro, we were riding primarily through vineyards. The “bodegas” or wineries were of varied and very elaborate architecture. After leaving Haro and crossing the Ebro river, the agriculture was varied, although most of it was wheat fields. Along the way, we spotted several small cities and villages, each clamoring to have its photo taken.

Santo Domingo

We arrived at tonight’s destination, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in time for lunch (by Spain’s standards), but I decided to skip it in light of the cookies and coffee in Haro. Around five, I decided that I needed a little ice cream to tide me over until dinner at 8:30 this evening.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada has a famous legend going back to the early 12^th century. The following version is taken from our daily ride sheet:

A family of German pilgrims was spending the night in Santo Domingo de la Calzada when the innkeeper’s daughter propositioned their son. The son spurned her and the embittered young woman took revenge by arranging to hide some of the church silver in the young man’s pack. The next day she notified the authorities, who arrested the pilgrim and found the silver. The young man was hanged for theft. When the family returned from Santiago, they stopped in Sto. Domingo to pay their respects to their dead son who was left hanging as a warning against sin. But when they approached his body, they found him alive, exclaiming that St. James saved him from death due to his innocence. The parents ran to tell the mayor that their son was still alive. The mayor, about to enjoy a chicken dinner, scoffed at the news and said the boy was no more alive than the chicken he was about to eat. Naturally, the chicken sprang to life and ran away cackling.

You can still find live chickens in a glass-encased chicken coop inside the cathedral, which I visited this afternoon. Legend has it that they are descendants of   the original. I visited the cathedral this afternoon and saw the chickens. The cathedral also has a fascinating museum.

I wonder what we are having for dinner tonight.

A beautiful day in Laguardia

A modest breakfast to fortify us for today's ride!

Puente la Reina to Laguardia

The "puente" in Puente la Reina

Today was a fantastic day, and at 10:30 in the evening, I am not sure how much of it I will be able to describe. but first, a brief note about last night. After yesterday's ride, I washed out my cycling clothes and put them to dry outside my window. They were almost dry by dinner time, but I decided to leave them where they were. Of course, it rained while we were at dinner -- back to square one. (They actually finished drying pretty well by morning.)

Street with our hotel in Puente la Reina

Today was a 53 mile ride with 4,740 feet of climbing, most of it in one  long hill. Although long (about 15 km), it was not too steep. Most of the time  it was at 7% or less, with a few pitches at 10-12% (all this assumes you believe the Garmin GPS on the bike). The scenery was fantastic, and the weather was generally cooperative. For most of the time we had a good cloud cover which protected us from the heat and sun, but the sun seemed to come out just at the right moments, such as when we visited the monastery in Estella and during lunch at Santa Cruz.

The first major stop was the Monastery of Irache, a 12th century Benedictine Abbey.. Before visiting the monastery, we had to stop at the famous "Fuente de vino," the fountain which dispenses wine (courtesy of a local vintner) instead of water -- "to provide strength to the pilgrims for their journey. [We have now entered the famous Rioja wine district of Spain.] We then spent some time touring the impressive monastery and adjoing cloisters.

We stopped for lunch at Santa Cruz and ate light since we had the long climb ahead of us. We bellied up to the bar, ordered one or two tapas apiece as well as something to drink, and then took the food outside to relax for a few minutes.

Inspecting the wine

After the aforementioned climb, we had a magnificent descent on a beautifully paved rode with no traffic and superb vistas. Another short climb brought us to the town of Laguardia in the hear of the Rioja Alavesa wine region. We were treated to a special winery tour of the Bodega Carlos San Pedro. Our host provided a most informative presentation. The town of Laguardia has 300 caves all designed for wine storage -- practically one under every house.Most of our tour was in the cave.

Our hotel is in a "castle," constructed in 1932 from stones taken from a much older castle torn down by its rich and eccentric owner (at least, that is how I understand the story). The room are exceptionally well appointed (unlike last night's accommodations which were adequate, but sparse).

Atop our castle in Laguardia

Tomorrow will be a shorter ride -- about 29 miles, and relatively flat.
We have five riders (Pat and Larry, Mary Kay and Bob, and I) this week, as well as three guides (Belen, Philipp and Enrico). Next week, we will be joined by four more riders.

Roncesvalles to Puente la Reina

Friday Evening

Blessing of the Pilgrims

Along with hundreds of other “peregrinos” (pilgrims), we attended Mass – Catholics and non-Catholics alike – which ended with a blessing of the peregrinos. Suitably blessed, we moved on to dinner.

Our group fit perfectly at a table for eight in a large dining room with several groups of different sizes dining together. We had innumerable first courses, served family style, including white asparagus, a type of  pate, regional sausages, croquettes, squid, salad and a couple of things I have probably forgotten. For entrees, we had a choice of peppers stuffed with cod (delicious) or a duck confit, followed by a choice of desserts. I had the flan de cuajada, similar too but not exactly the same as the traditional flan. It, too, was excellent (I think it may be the same dessert I enjoyed on our Barcelona trip in 2003.) 

After dinner we briefly went over tomorrow’s route. While the walking peregrinos go straight through Pamplona, we will give it wide berth on our way to Puente la Reina. We will do 48 miles with just under 2500 feet of climbing. Upon arrival, I will pick up this narrative. But now, it is bed time.

Saturday

I am still not sure if I will have WiFi tonight, but I

Departure

 will write this knowing that it will get posted sooner or later. We had a good breakfast at 8:30 followed by our safety briefing and some last minute preparations, so it was about 10:45 by the time we hit the road. Traveling conditions were excellent. It was warm, but not too hot; sufficiently overcast to shield us from the sun, but not to make the day gloomy. A chance of rain was in the forecast, but we never ran into it.

At Santa Maria de Eunate

The ride trended downhill, although there were two short easy climbs. The roads had little traffic and lots of pleasant scenery. The only real stop en route was at the small church, Santa Maria de Eunate. This is one of the most important Romanesque monuments in Navarra. It was closed when I arrived, but the caretaker opened it for a few minutes for me and the four other pilgrims that were there.  I had an opportunity to chat with a Dutch woman who was cycling the Camino with her husband. They had started in Holland three weeks ago, and estimate another three weeks to finish.

From there it was a short hop to Puente la Reina, our stopping place for the day. I arrived some time after two and was ready for lunch. They offered six tapas for 10 Euro – that was more than enough food, and it was absolutely delicious. I shared a table with another woman pilgrim from Holland – this one traveling on foot.  She also started her home, and has been walking for a few weeks already.

We were told this morning that there would be lots of opportunity to meet and talk with people from all over the world. This is certainly proving true. One thing that surprises me however has to do with the local cyclists (not the peregrinos). At home, we commonly wave to a cyclist heading in the opposite direction and get a return wave. Here, I have found that only about one in three or four cyclists returns this greeting. Cycling pilgrims, however, are invariably friendly, even when we only have a few words in common.

To properly complete the camino, you are supposed to get at least one passport stamp per day from one of the many places along the way. In addition to the one that I got last night when I picked up the passport, I got three more today – at last night’s hotel, at Santa Maria de Eunate, and at the pilgrimage hostel (“alburgue”) here in Puente Reina.

Dinner is at eight tonight, so I have almost three hours to see if I can find an internet connection to get this posted.

Puente la Reina

Oops! It's 960 km.

That 790 km sign applies to the shortest Highway route. Our route, by small roads, is considerably longer. We will bicycle 960 km or about 575 miles.

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Guy Cunningham
707-515-9964

790 kilometers to go

 It is official! We are underway. We left Pamplona at 3 pm this afternoon and arrived in Roncesvalles around an hour later. After getting luggage into our rooms and changing into cycling gear, we got our bikes fitted out, and then went for a test ride. We were free to ride as we chose, subject to getting back in time for our team meeting, but we chose to take a short climb (about 2km) to a point where we could look across to France. (We could have ridden to France, but would have had a climb of about 3000 feet to get back up.) The bike seems great and I am looking forward to a day of serious riding tomorrow.

After our short ride, we went to the pilgrim office and picked up our pilgrim credentials or passports, as well as our "conchas," the scallop shells that identity the pilgrims. Technically, we are stretching things since we are supported by a van and are not carrying everything that we will need on the journey, but ....

This week we have only five riders, along with our three guides. We will be very well supported! The other four riders are two couples from Ft. Collins, CO, who frequently vacation together.

We will be having our first meeting at 7pm (in about 20 minutes) where we will go over logistics and the details of tomorrows ride. Then we will attend the traditional mass that commences the pilgrimage (very short, we are told) and then dinner.