Day 11 – Santo Domingo de la Calzada

An early start this morning as the dormitory was a bee hive of activity by 5:30am. 

The walk was mostly on clay and gravel roads through rolling farmland, mostly in grape vines and a lot of wheat.

Nothing like a 6km hike to the first open coffee shop to get the stomach acids churning.

Obligatory pic in the pilgrims cutout sculpture along the way. 

Stopped in Cirueña for coke and chips. 

Besides the two albergues, this little ghost town has rows of empty apartments.  Reportedly this is a symbol of EU investment gone wrong. 

Some fellow pilgrims have an amazingly small degree of separation.  Yesterday I met a British women who had been to Seattle and we shared parachuting stories from the Issaquah drop zone.   Today I met a man and his high school son from Marblehead MA (not far from Andover, MA where K, j, & I lived for 20 years).  We chatted about Embry Riddle Univ. in Florida from where he graduated and where Julian is currently enrolled.

Weather is supposed to continue to be dry and warm for the next few days so I will push for 25km tomorrow.

-jgp