After Santo Domingo, the wine country ends, and the land is flatter, more bare. Heading to Belorado, the pilgrim enters Castile, and the province of Burgos. Something that made me pause was this bicentennial marker, reminding the traveller that the remains of four hundred patriots lie in these fields. The Peninsular War against Napoleon was, [...]
Archive for the ‘M. THE RIOJA’ Category
LAST OF THE RIOJA
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
THE TALE OF THE COCK AND HEN. AND WHY LITERARY CRITICISM IS A DUD.
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 10, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The approach to Santo Domingo de la Calzada looks so straightforward now. It was not always so. A mere thousand years back, the track was terrible and there was no accommodation. A local boy called Domingo, who wanted badly to be a Benedictine but lacked qualifications, became a hermit instead. He was not, however, just [...]
CAN EL BEAVER COME OUT TO PLAY?
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Can anybody come out to play? So many pilgrims remark on the brand new ghost town of Ciriñuela. Golf course and club, elaborate sports complex, numerous apartments and terraced houses. Just a couple of parked cars… And no people. This is Spain in la crisis. A whole new town, destined to be some kind of [...]
NAJERA: AN ACTUAL CAPITAL
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
On the approach to Nájera, we first pass by the German version of a Spanish poem written further along on the same wall. (It was the original work of a priest, Eugenio Garibay Baños.) I rather like it. Not too deep-and-cheesy at all, it lists all the major attractions of the Way, and ends by [...]
FAMOUS FIGHTS OF THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Heading out of Navarrete, you know it’s the Rioja: snowy hills, with vines on the slopes and flats. Does any region in the world have such a concentration of wine grapes? Along the track, a lovely Romanesque portal now serves as entry to the cemetery. When Pedro the Cruel lost his crown of Castile to [...]
A STROLL IN THE PARK TO NAVARRETE
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Getting out of Logroño is a bit troublesome, since waymarking often dies away in such urbanisations and is replaced by proud road shields announcing the Camino as patrimony rather than indicating exact direction. But a real delight awaits the pilgrim emerging from the city: the Park of the Grajera, with a very long promenade between [...]
NO BLOOD, NO BLISTERS…JUST BIG SLEEPS AND LATE STARTS
Posted in M. THE RIOJA, Uncategorized on May 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There’s a skimpy forest on the way out of Viana and out of Navarre. It just looks like a bad haircut on its small nob of ground, but enjoy it. As you cross through the vines of the Rioja then pass on to the meseta you won’t be seeing many more trees. Maybe this is [...]
