The full name of the town we stayed at last night is Santo Domingo de Calzada – Saint Dominic of the road. According to history/legend, he was rejected when he applied to join the monastery because he was illiterate but nevertheless was determined to spend his life in the service of pilgrims and built the bridge over the rió Oca, which we passed this morning, a hospital which now houses one of two paradores in the town (where we had dinner last night) and a church which is now the cathedral.
In any event, it was a lovely town and we enjoyed staying in the second of the two paradores.
Another perfect morning for walking and we quickly made our way to Grañón, where we stopped for a coffee and then the small villages of Recedilla del Camino, Castiledelgado and Vitoria de La Rioja, the latter the birthplace of Santo Domingo. All of the towns had signs at the start of the village outlining the facilities but not one, other than in Grañón, was open. There are around 400 to 500 walkers passing through every village on the camino every day, but few of the cafe and bar owners seem in the slightest bit interested, preferring to cater to the locals and open only at the traditional times of early afternoon for lunch and, perhaps, dinner around 8pm.
The coffee shop in Grañón was one exception and 10kms later a bar in Villamayor del Rió was another, doing a roaring business, and we stopped there for a late (for us, normal for Spain) lunch.
Most of the day was spent on and around the N-120 and the construction works for a newer road, the objective of which seems to be to bypass the villages above.
The countryside has changed completely now (we crossed into Castilla y León about 9km into the day) and we are walking mainly through harvested grain fields and dying sunflower fields – a month earlier and the scenery would have been stunning!
All that said, it was another great day’s walking and we made it into Belorado around 3:30pm, starting the ascent that we will continue over the next two days up and over the Montes de Oca, the second of the four ranges we will walk over!
23kms today for a total of 236 kms and the route here.
steelewalking 
Love the photo of the church!
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