Santo Domingo

In Santo Domingo I stay at a large and recently renovated Albergue costing a donation to stay at. I sit and write this in a lovely leather sofa in the lounge. Martin and Souraya decided on the luxury of getting hotel rooms, something about having a bath. Today it was sleep-in morning and again a rather short hike. It was all ready after dawn when we left Azofra after a light breakfast at the bar around the corner. It was actually daylight when leaving the village. Beautiful scenery along the road and no rain, despite the threatening clouds all around us during the day. Tomorrow we leave Rioja, but already the vineyards have almost ceased completely.

The first village that we passed was something strange. Between two small derelict villages was a major new development with several groups of fine new houses. The place was completely empty, the houses were closed and silent, it felt strange with so new and well-run and still completely empty houses. Many of them was for sale or lease. Did not see anyone, except an occasional pilgrim. At the end of the second of the older villages was to our great joy a bar that opened up for a nice second breakfast.

Continuing towards Santo Domingo, I noticed a field of slightly deteriorated hops which I took as another sign that we are leaving the wine country. At a distance we could see a giant solar power plant, impressive. I'm starting to feel that the journey is coming to an end. I go home in a week and I do not have many days left on the Camino. Right now I regret that I cannot complete the walk to Santiago. Despite weary feet and equipment failure I feel that I've got in to the flow of life that this is.

Wandering around searching for the famous cathedral of the city I find myself ending up at an Irish pub instead, where I sat at the bar slowly consuming a pint of rather stale Guinness and feeling a bit like an outsider while the locals emptied a bottle of Baily's in the form of coffee based drinks. When the beer is finished I return for a rest at the Albergue before dinner. Staying in a city raises hope of some variation from the traditional pilgrims menu. This wish is granted after some walking about in the light rain before finding a restaurant that pleases us. Sharing a meal with Martin and Souraya I had a local potato based dish and I think they tried the paella to which we shared a very tasty bottle of Rioja wine, the most expensive one on my trip.

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