Day 11 - Santo Domingo De La Calzada to Belorado

Following a great evening at a local restaurant (Meson Los Caballeros) where we spent too much and ate to much, we had a great sleep at our hotel.

As a result we were up late and decided to compound this by having breakfast at the hotel.

What a great breakfast spread.

Finally we hit the road around 8:15am and found that quite a few people were also leaving late. Probably as today was Sunday (and a relatively cooler day).

The walk was a 22km walk through rolling hills of crops, vegetables and sunflowers (no flowers unfortunately). No vineyards.



The walk took 4h25m during which we enjoyed time with a couple of different groups. 

Our average speed, door to door, including rest stops was 5.0 km/hr. This was another record for us and indicates that we must be getting used to walking the distances and trying to forget the blisters.



All day yesterday we passed sign markers every one kilometre. We passed the mileage marker below which told us that there was 555km to go. Some 6km later we passed another mileage marker saying that there were 576km to go. Now there are no more markers.

The first 6km and the last 5km of our walk today were devoid of villages but in the middle section we passed five villages in rapid succession. All were lovely, but only one was open for coffee etc. Probably because it was Sunday.

Today we are in Belorado, which is a lovely town. When we arrived, we found that the village was having a festival with foot races for all ages and a band.  

                                                                      Everyone was at the festival, including our hotel owner, and all were in their Sunday best. 

Because of this, the hotel owner was at the festival and the hotel was closed and we had to occupy ourselves for a few hours.

We did this by gravitating to the Central Plaza and sitting amid the festival goers while enjoying some white (yes white) wine and some olives and ham and bread. Lovely.

An interesting feature in the town is an ancient castle built into a hill behind the church (Santa Maria). The castle is still in use.

We have now left Rioja and are now in the province of Castilla Y Leon.

Tomorrow we walk 24km to St Juan De Ortega. The first part of this journey is an uphill ascent into the Oca Mountains of 400m. Fun!!

Our accommodation in Belorado is a small guest house in an old building. The rooms are large and the temperature is cool. There is also a double bed and a stand-up shower.