28th April 2024 Rest day in Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Mum’s birthday today – I found that hard as she would have been 88 but I think of her every day and believe she and Dad are with me as I walk with Steve on our Camino.  I have decided that the final place to deposit the last of the ashes I brought with me will be in Scotland, at Mum’s ancestor’s village of Peebles.

We had booked for the 0900H breakfast session but, even so, it was a bit of a struggle to get down there.  Breakfast at the Parador is always great and this was no different.  Beautiful fresh fruit – orange slices, melon, pineapple and kiwi fruit started the day then tortillas patatas and freshly brewed coffee finished us off.  A great way to start the day.

We had a few things we wanted to do today but the most important was to find some electrolytes for Steve.  After consulting Google, we thought the chemist a few hundred metres away so we headed that way past a little shop that I bought a "Hanging man" pastry last time. They had all sorts once again and the displays were beautiful but we didn't want anything after our breakfast and the shop was also packed.

We got to the chemist but unfortunately it was closed. It looks like there will be a later start tomorrow after a detour there to get the supplies.  Next job was to find Steve some more long walking pants as his decided to wear out with a few holes, so it was off to the sports shop down the road from the hotel.  We found some great pants then we headed back to the hotel to catch up on my blog and Steve’s videos.

I headed downstairs with my computer into the café area and got a lovely spot near the window, ordered a coffee then got stuck into updating.  Steve came down about an hour later feeling hungry, so he headed out to find somewhere to eat some lunch.  About 20 minutes later he had found a place only about 200m away and was waiting for me to come.  I headed down and Steve was sitting with a lovely lady from NZ who is travelling with her son.  I apologized as it was quite a cold area for me to sit so I checked the seating inside but that was cold too, so I headed back to the hotel to drop off my laptop and get our jackets before coming back to chat.

This was the lady who had come across a man in the shelter on the Pyrenees and had kept him warm until the emergency services arrived.  There were quite a few emergencies on the mountain within a few days of us going over the top.  We had lunch while chatting away with them before they left to find their accommodation.  By this stage we had finished our paella and headed to the Cathedral so Steve could see the chickens there.

The exposition of works outside the Cathedral was fascinating with a lot of figures dating back to the 13th and 14th Centuries.  There were beautiful altar fronts, ancient panels missing limbs and even a carving of Eve coming from Adam’s rib. I had forgotten a lot of the sights there but being back there I was instantly transported at the sight of a strange face in the iron work over one of the chapels.  The crypt and the chickens were still there but the rooster didn’t “crow” this time.  The crypt was beautifully decorated with mosaics. After some time admiring the beautiful roof and the massive buttresses we headed back outside. 

The skies were starting to darken and we thought we would go over to the bell tower as the admission ticket to the Cathedral includes entry to the tower outside but by the time we got there the tower had closed for siesta so we headed back to the hotel to have a nap for Steve and for me to finally get back up to date with the blog.  We would head over there after 1600H.

Steve slept for about 2 hours, so we headed over to the tower and had a look at the display of clocks before heading up the stairs to the top of the bell tower. It was a little disconcerting as they have drilled small holes in a line from the top of the tower to the bottom and covered them with a glass plate so you can see all the way down, but it didn’t do my vertigo any good.

By the time we got to the top it was only 5 minutes before the hour and we knew the bells would ring so we did a quick trip around the top before heading back down to the section of the bell tower where you could see the clock-like apparatus that automatically ring the bells.  I got down there with about 30 seconds to spare but managed to catch the process.

We really like this town and it has a very interesting story.  The founder of the town was a man called Domingo Garcia who was born in 1040; he wanted to devote his life to God and tried several times to enter some of the monasteries in the area but was never accepted so he became a hermit and lived in the forest where the current city now stands.

As he watched all the pilgrims going past on their way to Santiago de Compostela he realised they needed help on their pilgrimage as they were often too sick to carry on so he gave them a place to stay and eventually began building a bridge and a hostel due to the demand.  A hospital was then established to treat the sick people and many people were helped and he had quite a following (who continued his work after he died).

The King heard of his great efforts, and he was awarded a small piece of land where he built the first church in Santo Domingo.  This church doesn’t exist anymore but in 1158 a Romanesque Cathedral was erected in a style that allowed for a lot of people circulating at once which happens a lot on the Camino!

The original bell tower was destroyed by lightning during the 15th Century and replaced by another tower which was taken down eventually as it was unstable.  They were not sure if it was the ground or ground water that contributed but to stop this happening again, they built the bell tower about 50m away from the cathedral. After our visit to the bell tower we headed back to where we had dinner last night and had another pilgrims’ meal.  Steve even sent a picture of the previous nights’ table (where we all had a lovely dinner with the notation “Something is missing!” and Roland came back with a picture of himself, Josie and Mary at dinner in Belorado.  We miss them already.

Dinner complete we headed back to the hotel to organise our bags ready for tomorrow’s start.