I stand in awe at the foot of the cross

Yes, I can confirm that, in Spain the rain, it falls in the plain, and I can tell you the plains are pretty big. You can see for miles and you can see the rain falling over them. This is not the kind of weather I am used to in Spain but I bet that a lot of the pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago would welcome its cooling effect.
We left Pamplona and called at places along the Camino but somehow felt a bit of a cheat doing it in the car whilst watching pilgrims on foot and bicycle. It didn’t detract from feeling part of something bigger and spiritual however.
The small Church of Santa María de Eunate, an eight walled romanesque place of worship. This oozed spirituality although its history is a little patchy. That doesn’t matter. The first stop after Pamplona must be so welcome for pilgrims.

Then we move on towards Burgos calling at a number of places, some open, some closed but all having pilgrims visiting or simply walking on toward their goal still over 600km away.

A couple of very notable places we called at en-route were the was the Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real at Najera, which is built into the mountainside, and Santa Domingo de la Calzada which always has to live birds (Cockerel and Hen) caged in the church.

The presence of the birds made Santa Domingo de la Calzada feel a little odd but when you rounded a corner and saw the main altar I had one of those WOW! moments.  There a modern main altar with a single, large, empty cross was before you. On a closer look you see that the cross has carved into it words saying what is wrong with our world today – war, slavery, poverty, theft, abuse, selfishness, unemployment, climate change, drugs, prison, cancer, stress, death and more – all there on the cross where Jesus died.  You couldn’t help but stop and stare, and think, this is one reason why Jesus went to the cross, why he died, and why he lives, to give us the power to overcome these things.

Amazed, emotional, awe struck – you bet I was.