Stage Two - La Rioja - Part 2

From Sotés we followed rural roads northwest in the direction of Nájera. Very quickly we rejoined the Camino at the town of Ventosa. The small restaurant, Meson San Anton, run with love and taste by a young woman from Logroño whose husband worked in the city, so appealed to Encarnita that we decided to have lunch, even though we had scarcely finished breakfast. Encarnita was finding the Camino a rewarding experience: she could eat as much as she wanted and still lose weight.









The Monastery of Santa María la Real in Nájera is one of the architectural highlights on this stretch of the Camino. The monastery, founded by King Garcia IV around the eleventh century, when he and his hunting falcon stumbled on a cave that contained an image of the Virgin illuminated by a lamp, has been handed down over the centuries from one monastic order to another. Its two story cloister with the lace-like stonework encased in the arches is a marvel, and the detail of the Romanesque stone carvings a cheerful delight. While the church today may be challenged to find sufficient numbers of monks and nuns to staff its facilities, there appears to be no shortage of storks.

Shortly after Nájera we again detoured to the south, to visit the convent at Cañas and the monastery at San Millán de Cogolla. The Cañas convent rises up in the middle of a plain that stretches out in every direction. Again the stonework is delicate beyond belief, but it is the tomb of Doña Urraca in the chapter house that catches one’s attention. Doña Urraca, daughter of the convent’s founding family, was its first abbess. It is fitting that she have this beautiful stone sepulchre, carried on the shoulders of a procession of nuns, nobles and saints. It is also in keeping with the Romanesque sense of humour that the last nun in the procession be caught flirting with a monk.

We continued to find agreeable places to spend the night. This single star hostal had recently finished rooms in pinewood and offered a good kitchen. The fourth glass belongs to me, the picture-taker.