The Going Gets Tough

For some strange reason, none of us slept well last night. This made it really interesting when we had to get up at 5:30 this morning to be walking by 6. At dinner last night our hostess, a very nice lady named Noa, told us that if we were going to Villamayor de Monjardin, where we stopped today, we would need to get an early start, as there was only one pilgrim hostel in town, with 28 beds, and a casa rural. This, combined with our fun walk in the heat yesterday, made us quite eager to get on the road sooner.

This we successfully did. We bought supplies yesterday afternoon for our breakfast, surprisingly good coffee from a machine in the pilgrim hostel, and were walking by 6:05, while it was still nearly dark.

This reminds me, happy Summer Solstice!

Back at the ranch...our first hour of walking was on the old Roman Road that was the main route between the Roman province of Aquitania (southern France, I don't remember the capital city, Bourdeaux perhaps?) and the city of Asturica Augusta, the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. This was an important road because much of the metal used in coinage during Roman timess came from northwest Spain. And I don't just mean we walked the same route, I mean we walked on the actual Roman road crossed a Roman bridge. Very cool.

Today was scheduled to be a shorter day, only 14 miles, and combined with the earlier start, we were looking forward to being done with our walking a little earlier than usual. The weather also was much cooler today, and that helped as well. On the other hand, lack of sleep is telling, and my left leg and knee hurt quite a lot. Dad is having trouble with blisters. I told him that he could just learn to levitate and glide the rest of the way to Santiago. His response?

"Well, I am a lot like Jesus, and he could walk on water."

Me: "Except for that whole 'I'm the son of God' thing."

Mom: "And how about all the other miracles? Dying on a cross? Rising again after three days? Maybe, if you're just like Jesus, you'd like to heal this cut on my mouth?"

Mom doesn't appreciate potential blasphemy.

We're now beginning to move into one of the more fertile regions of Spain for wine. If you've ever heard of someone talking about a wine called 'Rioja', that's more or less where we'll be for the next few, very wonderful days. In fact, we passed a winery today that has a wine fountain for pilgrims. Walk up to it, open the spigot, get some wine (free!) and enjoy. I can't figure out how they get away with this. There is a sign saying "People under 18 can't use the fountain", but I'm amazed the wineries lawyers and the government thinks this is a sufficient deterrent.

There's also a webcam at the fountain, I assume so that people can see their friends who are on the pilgrimage. If I had thought any of you cared enough to watch for us at 2 in the morning California time, I would have warned you.

So, we all drank our wine at the fountain. It was pretty crappy wine, but I sure as heck wasn't going to pass it up, just on general principles. Dad and I think Mom snuck another glass when we weren't looking. She was kinda giggly at lunch.

We made into town according to plan around 12:30 after another beautiful walk through forest, vineyards, and rye fields. The town is notable, not because it sits on the side of a hill (as I said you notice exactly how much this is the case when you're on foot), but because on the top of the hill (another 400 feet up) are the ruins of a 10th century castle.

Rather than the pilgrim hostel, we thought we would try to stay in a Casa Rural. It occurs to me that should give you some frame of reference for the places we stay:

Albergue: Hostel with common sleeping rooms, bathrooms, and meals. Meals are extra.

Casa Rural: This is like renting a room in a private home, but with bathroom, kitchen, and laundry privileges. You're on your own for food.

Pension: Like a bed and breakfast, but dinner is usually included as well.

Parador: A 4 or 5 star hotel, operated by the Spanish government, and usually in some kind of historic monument: castle, monastery, palace.

Marriott: Just like in the US, but way cooler, because it's Spain.

Anyway, we knocked on the door of the Casa Rural. No answer. So we rang the bell. Still no answer. Eventually, an old lady across the street stuck her head out the window, came over and tracked down the owner for us. We didn't have a reservation, but the owner had a room for three people, with bath, laundry, kitchen, all for 50 Euros. The house is lovely, having been built in 1832, and re-done with the existing house beams exposed.

This is a different Spain than even I normally see. We are in a town of 600 people, and everyone has been super kind and friendly, especially towards pilgrims. This has been true of our whole trip thus far. I find myself thinking that this is how the world should be.

After lunch in the bar (the only bar/restaurant in town - it's also the grocery store) I noticed a statue, so I went over to see who it was. Turns out, it was some guy named Sancho Garces I. I doubt you're exactly jumping for joy on hearing that name, but I was pleasantly surprised - he was the first King of Navarra.

The Garces family had a pretty good deal. Remember the story about Charlemagne double-crossing the Basques and laying siege to Pamplona? The Garces family was in charge of Navarra then, too. So they worked a deal with Charlemagne to be a buffer zone against the Arabs, and also worked a deal with the slightly corrupt local caliph to leave them alone, provided they didn't rape and pillage to far to the south. Left more or less to themselves, the Garces family went to work carving out a kingdom. By 905, Sancho Garces decided he was strong enough to tip his hand, and by taking advantage of some internal political conflicts in Muslim Spain, he significantly expanded his territory south and declared himself King. He died ignonimously by falling off his horse in 925, but his son and grandson succeeded him.

I was very excited to see a note below the statue of friend Sancho telling me that he (and his successors) are buried in the castle. I inquired in the bar about climbing up to it, and they told that they had the key, and I could go up and poke around any time I want. I plan to do that a bit later when things cool off a bit, and will report back any interesting findings.

Beyond that, tomorrow will be a hard day - 18 miles with little shade and few fountains. We'll be getting an early start again.

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