Santo Domingo de la Calzada

September 19, 2023

The weather looks fine today - sunny, mild, with minimal winds forecast. It makes an optimistic way to begin the day, which is made even better when we step downstairs and enjoy the best breakfast presentation of the tour so far. We’re in no hurry, so we take our time over the meal, pack up, and are on the street by sometime after ten.

Today’s ride is generally a straight shot south, across the Ebro and then gradually climbing up the Oja toward the Sierra Demanda mountains in the distance. The direct route is shortish and starts with a few unsealed miles, but since conditions are favorable at the last minute I decide to redraw it, lengthening it by several miles to route east to Bastida and then back to Haro by skirting a large bend in the Ebro and staying on pavement the whole way. I don’t notice that in doing so I’ve added a stiff climb to the day, which comes about a mile into the ride when we start climbing at around 8-9% for the next mile. It’s short but the most challenging climb we’ve taken so far, and takes a bit of the bloom off the day.

It also ends up being the prettiest part of the day though, and on the balance is worth the pain.

The ride starts to the east, skirting a bend in the Ebro. To the north is a section of the long ridge that separates the Basque Country from the Rioja.

To the south, some Rioja vines. We’ll be seeing a lot of these in the next few days.

The hardest work of the day behind us, we enjoy a two mile drop back to the river at Bastida.

After skirting the edge of Haro we turn south toward Santo Domingo. After the striking scenery we’ve enjoyed so far, the next fifteen miles have a sameness to them as we very gradually gain elevation at maybe a one percent grade. There aren’t many reasons to stop, but I do get a decent shot of a raptor up ahead, and as we draw closer to Santo Domingo we start seeing the contours of the Sierra Demanda range rising behind it.

A guy and some sheep. There’s likely a dog in there somewhere too.

Baños de Rioja, pop. 92 (2011). There’s a church of course, a bar, a walking path up to the summit of that knoll behind it, and even a hotel in the keep of an old castle. Something to consider for next time.

#193: Booted eagle, the smallest eagle in Europe. I was surprised by this. I never really expect to be able to identify raptors from below, but the distinctive coloration is definitive.

Approaching Santo Domingo. Behind it is the gap cut by the Oja River. If all goes well we’ll bike up through there to Ezcaray tomorrow.

Video sound track: All of My Life, by Classic Dream Orchestra

It’s about 1:30 when we enter little Santo Domingo and start considering whether to head straight to a restaurant for lunch or see if our apartment is available yet, when I suddenly realize I’m having an arrythmia episode. I call a halt and lie down on the nearest bench, hoping that by catching it soon it will quiesce.

Which it does, thankfully. Within less than a minute it’s back to normal again but by that time Rachael’s gone on ahead to the apartment, thinking that if it’s available I could move on to it and lie down there. She has some trouble finding it but eventually does, and is back within ten or fifteen minutes to report that it’s not available yet.

So we move on to lunch, entering the historical center and looking around. We don’t find much - it’s surprisingly quiet, and we’ll later learn that it’s a holiday so many things are closed - but we do find an open restaurant with their menu board out and a half dozen bikes leaning on the walls outside. Obviously the right spot.

While we’re waiting for our meal Rachael starts studying the phone looking for an open grocery store because we’re here in an apartment for two nights. She’s distressed to see that all of them appear closed and not opening until tomorrow (because of the holiday, our server tells us); but then she finds one that is just in walking distance and stays open until three. She can just make it if she hurries, so as soon as she finishes her cheesecake dessert she’s off like a shot while I wait for her to return.

Fifteen minutes later I’ve finished my wine and am still waiting so I ask for the factura, settle the bill, and go outside and wait on the street where I take the time to look around.

Outside our restaurant, waiting for Rachael to return from the grocery store. The walkers are pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Santo Domingo is a stop on the French Way.

Still waiting. This is a good time to admire the free-standing tower of the adjacent cathedral. The baroque tower, built in 1762, is the fourth generation of towers dating back to the twelfth century origins of the church. If it’s open tomorrow and I think I can make it up and down it’s 169 steps, maybe I’ll climb up for the view.

And still waiting, giving us ample time to wait for the best lighting for the archway in front of the cathedral.

We’re not the only bike travelers passing through today.

And wait. Rachael’s made it to the store in time, and the grocer was kind enough to keep it open long enough to let her shop. So that takes awhile, and then she has a hard time finding her way back because the phone seems to have trouble navigating in these small streets. It’s been close on to an hour by the time it’s back, and it’s another twenty minutes until we get to our apartment and get checked in. It’s held up there by the fact that the keypad code we’ve been given doesn’t work, so we have to contact the host and get assigned a new code. It’s after four by the time that’s done and we’ve lifted our bikes and gear up a flight of stairs, and by then it’s time for a quick nap.

Around six we both go out for walks, with the two hours of daylight there is still left. I don’t go far, walking a few blocks to the bridge across the Oja and then along the ribbon park that follows the dry river, with my eyes up in the trees. For about the twentieth time this year I hear and see a Eurasian jay, a beautiful bird; but also for about the twentieth time it comes too late for me to frame him before he disappears into the trees. I’ve still got another five weeks though, so maybe I’ll get lucky.

The bridge across the Oja at Santo Domingo. The original was built in the mid-eleventh century, but this version is from the 19th.

The shrine at the townward side of the bridge. This one’s from 1917, replacing earlier versions that were washed away in floods. The blue sign to the right points the way to Santiago, just across the bridge and down the road a ways.

Another view of the Santo Domingo bridge. Not much water running through the Oja at the moment, if this is the main channel.

#194: Corn bunting. Not a great shot, but it looks like the only candidate. A blurry frontal shot showing it’s streaked breast helps identify it.

Rachael makes it back right before sundown, from her walk east and back upstream along the French Way. She brings back a terrific gallery of landscape photos, her reward for being out in the best hour of the day and having a camera with her that takes surprisingly great shots.

The view to the northeast. Rachael’s following the Way in reverse here, walking toward Nàjera (our next stop) until it’s time to turn back.

The view north. The range in the distance is the Cantabrica range that separates Euskadi from Rioja.

She’s found a pretty nice time of day to be out here.

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Ride stats today: 25 Miles, 1,300’; for the tour: 116 miles, 6,400’

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2023 Bird List

193. Booted eagle

194. Corn bunting

Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 438 miles (705 km)

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Kathleen ClassenAll our sympathy to Rachael. It is amazing the way the GPS jumps around in a maze of narrow alleys.
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7 months ago

Suzanne GibsonWe stayed in Santo Domingo when we walked the Camino in 1997. Nice to see pictures again and reconnect.
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7 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Kathleen ClassenThe gps actually does somewhat better than the phone map but not always and it doesn’t help being directionally challenged!
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7 months ago

Kathleen ClassenI too am directionally challenged. It is really a pain!
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7 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI don’t know if you ever told me - I know you walked part of the French Camino, but which part of it? Where did you start and end?
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7 months ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Scott AndersonI walked part of the Chemin de St. Jacques, where I met Janos, from le Puy to Moissac. Later together we walked all of the Camino starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago. Not all in one piece, though, because I was still working.
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7 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI’d forgotten that you’d met in France, and then went back for seconds. For no good reason I’d placed you two as meeting up in northern Spain. We’ve still got a few stops ahead you’ll recognize then before we turn south.
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7 months ago

Keith AdamsMissing bird shots was a constant theme for me in Minnesota. I bet I saw 50 or more flicker rumps disappearing into the trailside trees. I know I missed at least three bald eagles, as well as some smaller raptors that chose to stop circling and sail off just when I stopped to get the camera out.

Hundreds of small birds, maybe finches and sparrows, flitted past and disappeared as I rode.

Makes me all the more impressed by your ability to spot and capture images without spooking them.

Respect!
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7 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Keith AdamsI’m certainly no bird whisperer. I think the essential ingredients are persistence, patience and luck.
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7 months ago