091609 Day Three

Ok, I am way behind... Haven´t seen a computer in what seems like forever (my carpal tunnel is totally cured ). The next town Joseph and I arrive at was Santa Domingo de la Calzada. The Cathedral of Santa Domingo de la Calzada is there. He is the patron saints for the pilgrims or at least did much to assist and promote the pilgimage. Some parts of church are like a 1000 years old. The city is about 5,000 folks and the old portion where the albergue is just beautiful. Here is the chicken story. The is myth is called the Miracle of the Cock and the hen. There once was this beautiful inn keepers daughter who became smitten with a young lad as he traveled with his family along the pligrim route. For what ever reason he refused her advances(lame.). Angered by this she hid a gold cup in his bag and had him arrested for robbery (that will teach him). He then was hanged. It is not clear where his parents were when this happened (probably watching the evening news)? Anyway returning back they found him miraculously hanging in the gallows being protected by Santa Domingo. The parents then went to see the sheriff and ask for the release of their son. They came upon the sheriff as he was about to commence in a chicken dinner. When the parents said there son was alive the sheriff protested by saying that he was ¨no more alive than the chickens he was to have for dinner¨. At this the chickens sprung to life and crowed. I will leave you to find the moral here (you could go many ways here). To this day there are live chickens kept in the Cathedral and I have the pix to prove it.

We started at 6:00 AM from Asofra. During the trip to Santa Domingo it rained heavy with a strong head wind. Good news we only had to travel16 Kilometers. Bad news I did not stop once and it was a steady slow climb. And I mean not once. Joseph pulled away from me but I caught him when he had to take a powder. We entered Santa Domingo together and were the first to place our bags in front of the nicest albergues I have ever seen. It was very cool and modern with all the ammenities. It was also free except for a donation. The people running the place were nice and gave us simple directions to the shops were I had to buy a fleece (we are heading into the mountains) and some walmart like teva sandals. (Oh brother, I swore I would never buy a pair, I am a chuck taylor docksider kind of guy not a teva guy, whaterver dude.)

I also go to see a medico (doctor) who was so impressed my blistered feet he took a picture of one and called his assistant over to see it. Let me tell it looks nasty. I won´t even example how bad it looks. No pain no gain right!

That night in the common area Joseph and I chatted with other pilgrims, a german girl named Veronica who is a packaging major and these 3 Spain marathoner ladies who average about 7 kilometers an hour. On of the ladies makes very expensive woman´s leather shoes. We finishe my bottle of wine with bread and cheese then retired. We left the next day at 6:30 AM in the dark.