← Maratón de Logroño·2 nights

San Millán, Santo Domingo and Ezcaray: Monasteries and the Camino

Two nights in the valleys south-west of Logroño, where the Yuso monastery keeps some of the earliest written Spanish, a cathedral houses a live hen and rooster, and a mountain village cooks some of the best food in La Rioja.

Duration2 nights
TransitHire car, about 1 hour from Logroño
DepartsLogroño

After the Maratón de Logroño: San Millán, Santo Domingo and Ezcaray

The Route: Logroño → San Millán de la Cogolla → Santo Domingo de la Calzada → Ezcaray → Bilbao Airport Logistics: Hire car throughout. Short drives between three small places, each under 30 minutes apart. Marathon Month: October Duration: 2 nights

Logroño ──(about 50 mins by car)──> San Millán ──(about 20 mins)──> Santo Domingo ──(about 20 mins)──> Ezcaray
                                                                                                    │
                                       Bilbao Airport (BIO) ◄──(about 1 hr 45 mins by car)──────────┘

The Maratón de Logroño runs two laps of the city on the first Sunday of October. West of Logroño, the valleys that climb towards the Sierra de la Demanda hold three places close together that are hard to reach without a car and very easy with one.

October in the Rioja Alta valleys brings the last of the harvest on the lower slopes, beech woods starting to colour higher up around Ezcaray and cold nights. Take a warm layer; Ezcaray sits at about 800 m.

This trip needs a hire car, collected in Logroño after the race. Buses to San Millán are few, and the three places together are impossible to string together without one. The Monday straight after the race is a poor day to start: the monasteries follow their own opening days, and the Yuso monastery has in recent seasons opened Tuesday to Saturday plus Sunday mornings. Start on Tuesday, or spend Monday in Ezcaray and reverse the order.

Night One: San Millán de la Cogolla

San Millán grew up around a sixth-century hermit, Millán, and the two monasteries that followed him, Suso on the hillside and Yuso in the valley, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Marginal notes written by a monk in a Latin text here, the Glosas Emilianenses, are among the earliest written examples of Castilian Spanish, which is why the valley calls itself the cradle of the language.

The Monasterio de Yuso is the visit for tired legs: a large, mostly level building entered by guided tour, with the library, the sacristy and the church. Tours run at set times and last about an hour. Suso, higher up and reached by bus from Yuso, has been closed for restoration; check whether it has reopened before planning around it. Book both through monasteriodesanmillan.com.

The valley floor around Yuso is flat enough for an easy walk along the road and river in the late afternoon.

Where to stay. The Hostería del Monasterio de San Millán is inside one wing of Yuso itself, the obvious and memorable choice. For more choice, stay in Santo Domingo de la Calzada and drive over for the tour.

Night Two: Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Ezcaray

Santo Domingo de la Calzada is a Camino de Santiago town founded around a bridge and a pilgrim hospital built by a local saint in the eleventh century. Its cathedral keeps a live hen and rooster in an ornate coop inside the church, in memory of a medieval miracle story about a hanged pilgrim and a roasted chicken that came back to life. The old town is flat and compact, and Calle Mayor, the route the pilgrims still walk, runs straight through it. Walking a stretch of it among pilgrims with backpacks is a fair way to spend an hour on marathon legs.

Where to stay. The town has two paradors: the Parador de Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in the old pilgrim hospital beside the cathedral, and the Parador Bernardo de Fresneda, in a former convent. Either works.

Ezcaray, 20 minutes south and higher into the hills, is a village of arcaded streets and stone houses, known for its mohair blankets and its food. It suits a slow afternoon: the main square and the arcades are level, and a path follows the River Oja out of town.

Where to eat. Echaurren in Ezcaray is a family hotel and restaurant that has become one of the best-known kitchens in La Rioja, with a traditional dining room and a tasting-menu restaurant. Book well ahead. In Santo Domingo, the restaurants along Calle Mayor serve pilgrim menus and Riojan stews.

Getting to Bilbao Airport

Bilbao Airport (BIO) is about 1 hour 45 minutes from Ezcaray by road, via Santo Domingo and the AP-68 motorway. Drop the hire car at the airport. Logroño-Agoncillo (RJL) is closer, about an hour, but has very few flights.