Had coffee and set out at 7¨20 just as it was getting light, cool, and clear, very nice walk across hay fields and grape arbors crossing rolling hills in beautiful light. Took pictures at a 12th century stone cross, where a German was trying to take a self portrait with a friendly cat. We helped him get a shot.
Went 11 Km to Ciruena, mostly deserted modern golf resort recently built around an old village, where we found a wonderful cafe´ with potato tortilla and egg sausage tortilla, plus tea and coffee. Saw our Korean room mates from night before already in the cafe. A German girl with very bad blisters gave us some chocolate she said was too much to carry that had been given to her earlier. Later passed her limping slowly toward Santa Domingo and she said she was going to have her blisters treated there.
Reached Santa Domingo at 12 noon, our best time yet, but the 15 km distance was shorter than our normal 22 Km and found our Parador hotel, an old converted monastery with a beautiful central cloisters, a real bath tub and even a hair dryer and shampoo. 90 euros!
Did our laundry, checked our packs for extraneous items, found about a pound of them and took them to donate to a nearby pilgrim hostel after we gobbled a pilgrim meal. Found that they had a foot blister expert working there for a donation of 5 euros and had him work on David´s blisters, then Leslie´s. He said David had a couple of small infections on the little toes´blisters as the bacteria can enter where the threads pierce the skin intended to allow fluid to drain. Leslie was convinced with reluctance to let him work on her, and he said her problem was stress on her arches rather than blisters. He prepared a large bandage support for both her feet, and advised us both to change our socks every 5 Km to avoid more blisters. Asked to see our boots but they were back at our hotel.
Went to an exhibit of the town´s antiquities and legends, including even a mock pilgrimage with stamps on our pilgrim cards. All the other participants were Spaniards and not pilgrims, so it was a bit funny since we had walked many of the places they talked about. Would have been good for kids.
Will try to have an early night so we can get out early hopefully tomorrow. We have three pretty hard days ahead to get to Burgos. Thinking of sending one pack ahead to each night´s albergues.
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