Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. That is why it is called the present….

Today has been a good day !

Long but good! And look at the calories in the bag 👏👏👏

So the majority of today’s blog will be a photographic description of our day!

And they’re off again…

after another late G&T night of course !

Well who could refuse to sit and soak up the atmosphere 🤔
Monasterio Santa Maria de la Real

Look carefully and you’ll see what dirty stop outs , we’ve become !!! This photo was taken on our way home to bed 🙄🙄😴😴

Last night I told you we had a cheeky hill out of Najera .. well this is looking back on Najera from the top !
And when we get to the top of said cheeky hill, this is what we see on the other side !
Vines as far as the eye can see….
No unpleasant smells…just dust from the numerous grape picker’s vans!

Look what lies ahead for us 🙄🙄🙄another hill , cheeky or not, 🙈🙈🙈

Then at the top we can look back !!!

And look where we’ve come from ..
A wine picking tractor ..fits between the rows of vines …and another cause of dust!
Taking on water in the first village we came upon …Azofra

However, we think the inhabitants must be of small stature…look how low the bench is …no photos of me getting up for obvious reasons 🥴🥴…but at least I knew when I leaned on the back for a lever, the whole thing wouldn’t tip up 😉😉

A medieval column …Picota XVI monument in the middle of the grape vines

This rollo or tall stone column functioned believe it or not ( and it says so in the guide book so must be true ) as a judicial and administrative marker…and where executions were held!!! Yikes best move on me thinks 🤔🤔

Suddenly we enter the wheat growing area …

Bread and wine in a day’s hike …well more like wheat and grapes, but you get the picture!! Onwards we go …..

The road is long …..
Walking out of our coffee stop in Cirueña …At a rather nice golf club !! Couldn’t stop for a round ….no Dear Reader, not just because we didn’t have time .. neither of us know anything about golf!!!
Look carefully and you can see where we’re heading!!
And when we got there … looking back , we could see where we had come from 🥴
Then at last … we can see Santa Domingo de la Calzada 👏👏👏

Don’t be fooled, turns out we were still over a mile away!!

At this point we were joined by a guy who I will call Adam .. to protect his identity, you understand 😉…turns out he was British but had lived in Holland since he was 24 years old ( hazarding a guess here but I’d say for 35 years . Anyway, we got chatting and his parents came from Sunderland…so the North East connection again . He, though grew up in Leeds …an avid Leeds United supported ( the DB will be pleased 😉) and went to Allerton Comprehensive School . A certain Marco Pierre White was in the same year, and Adam and he were in the same home economics class . Now, I don’t know why or how it happened but MPW broke Adam’s nose 👃- and his comment to us was the Home Economics teacher didn’t see a genius in the class .., just a thug 🥴🥴🙈🙈

Eventually we got to our hostel ( boutique one, if you please!) and found our way to the square , where you’ve guessed it … we had a beer or two!!

Of course, we’re sat at a table next to two men ….transpires they were doing Brittany Ferries Rioja Tour on their motor bikes !!! Where were they from? Whitley Bay of course … in the North east !!! So a happy half hour passed swapping tales of the Camino and the bike trip !

Then back to our hostel ( boutique you remember 😉😉) to do our stretching routine . Let me tell you Dear Reader, I will return from this Camino just like Morph …able to bend any which way ! Joking apart …after 4 nights of a 15 minute stretch programme..I can already feel the difference !!

So tomorrow is going to be hot .. we have been blessed with good walking weather so far … but with temperatures of 30° forecast by 13.00 hours … we will be up and off as early as we can in the morning !

Doesn’t look too bad …
Plenty of coffee stops on the way !!!

So true 😘

With that , I bid you goodnight ….

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  1. enchantingcreatively5ad996ad35's avatar
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3 Comments

  1. Second go…
    Another great day and loving being part of it.
    Meeting great people and taking in the wonderful scenery. What’s not to love!
    Excellent that you are both oiling the cogs at regular intervals.
    Kathleen has been known to have the odd pint mind! 🤣

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