{"id":1386,"date":"2013-04-10T09:28:57","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T16:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2013-04-10T11:25:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T18:25:24","slug":"la-rioja-where-the-wind-comes-whipping-down-the-plain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/la-rioja-where-the-wind-comes-whipping-down-the-plain\/","title":{"rendered":"La Rioja! Where the Wind Comes Whipping down the Plain&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">0<\/span>9 April 2013<\/p>\n<p class=\"drop\">When you think that the Camino can\u00b4t get more demanding, it usually does.<\/p>\n<p>We left Ventosa (which apparently means &#8220;windy&#8221;, which should have been our first clue) at about 7:30, despite our best efforts to be out the door by 7.<\/p>\n<p>By 9:30, we were drinking our cafe con leche\u00b4s in Najera, 10 km on.<\/p>\n<p>In Najera, we visited the beautiful Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real, where some of the kings of Navarre are entombed. It was a grand building, despite a rather ignoble period of its history after the Spanish state dissolved the monasteries.<\/p>\n<p>It served as a barracks, a prison, even a bull ring, before it was declared a national cultural treasure and given over to the Franciscans about 150 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>We spent rather too much time in Najera, but the walk through the vinyards to lunch in Azofra was pleasant enough.<\/p>\n<p>It was after this, that the rather strong and constant winds we\u00b4ve had the past few days suddenly became the most absurd headwind ever.<\/p>\n<p>They were listed at 30 &#8211; 40 kph, and Patrick mentioned that he\u00b4d been in tropical storms that were less windy.<\/p>\n<p>We fought these winds for 15 km that seemed like 30.<\/p>\n<p>We passed through the eerie and apocalytic town of Ciruna, full of new, modern housing developments, but utterly bereft of people. <\/p>\n<p>We expected zombies at any moment.<\/p>\n<p>And then, back to the wind.<\/p>\n<p>Eamon and Petra surged ahead, propelled by youth and long legs. Patrick, Viola, and I struggled, exhorting and encouraging each other, occasionally shouting and swearing at the wind.<\/p>\n<p>When we crested the (almost) last hill and saw the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the valley below us, we shouted and wept for joy.<\/p>\n<p>It was, we decided, the most beautiful city ever built by human hands. The streets are paved with chorizo and jamon, the fountains flow with vino tinto and the river is surely cerveza.<\/p>\n<p>Angels sing of its wonders. If we could have danced for joy, we would have.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202209.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202209.jpg\" alt=\"20130410-202209.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202254.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202254.jpg\" alt=\"20130410-202254.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202327.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202327.jpg\" alt=\"20130410-202327.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202441.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130410-202441.jpg\" alt=\"20130410-202441.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>09 April 2013 When you think that the Camino can\u00b4t get more demanding, it usually does. We left Ventosa (which apparently means &#8220;windy&#8221;, which should have been our first clue) at about 7:30, despite our best efforts to be out the door by 7. By 9:30, we were drinking our cafe con leche\u00b4s in Najera, 10 km on. In Najera, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pilgrim-reports","category-thom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1386"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}