Dave's Travel Blog

Leaving Logrono, Spain

After spending a relatively easy two days walking a little over 20 kilometers each day, we were a little nervous about today’s walk…an almost 30 kilometer walk from Logrono to Najera.  The walk started poorly as Ruth left her AirPods at the hotel and I left my walking sticks at a local coffee shop.  Thankfully, we were both a few hundred yards away from each location when we realized what we had done. 

The day didn’t get any better as my brother woke up sick and managed to walk the entire 18+ miles…even faster than me. He just wanted to get it over. My feet and blisters hurt so bad at times that it was mentally draining. Ruth didn’t seem to have a problem at all.

About 50 minutes before we approached Navarette, a Spanish guy, Alex, approached me and asked me if he could walk with me so that he could practice English. He walked the entire way to Navarette with me…and gave me the history of the Camino. At least it helped pass the time and took my mind off my feet.

We checked into our hostel, had a few beers and I went right back out walking, like an idiot, to visit the Santa Maria la Real monastery. Then went right back out to go to a pharmacy for blister bandages and neosporin.

Tomorrow’s walk is only a little over 20 kilometers. I’m hoping for a better day. My brother may need to bus or cab it to the next town.

The walk itself had some periods of nice scenery, but not the best day on the Camino. Some pics:

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We departed Torres del Rio around 7:30 this morning and arrived in Lorgrono around noon…a 13 mile walk. We had a great stay in Torres del Rio and the dip in the 60 degree pool helped with my aches and pains.

The walk today was fairly easy with 60 degree temps with small areas of slight rain. We stopped in Viana and had coffee and some snacks and visited a local church.

We left the Spanish Navarre region and entered the La Rioja region right before we walked into the city of Logroño. Logrono is the largest city we have been in since Pamplona. To celibrate, we walked to the street Calle del Laurel, where all the best tapas bars are located. We stopped at four of five tapas places and had about a 5 or 6 glasses of wine each. Most notable was the grilled mushroom and shrimp stacks at Bar Angel and a calamari sandwich at a place I can’t remember the name. Tapas in Spain is amazing and I can live on it for the rest of my life if I had to.

I took a walk in the early evening to find some ibuprofen and stumbled upon the church of Santa Maria la Redonda.  This is the church that was closed when we first arrived in town.  Unbeknownst to me, they have a small Michaelangelo oil painting behind the main altar.  I paid a euro to activate the light and took a photo which I included in the gallery below.  It would have been a disappointment if I missed this.  I also visited a much less ornate church on my way back to the hotel.  The incense in the church was amazing and someone was giving confession in Spanish which resonated all through the church.  I believe it was the San Bartolomé church.  Both within a 5 minute walk of the hotel.

Lots of walking in store for us tomorrow…18 miles. Need to get some rest and make sure we don’t go back out for more wine.

As usual, some pics from today:

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We just completed day 6 of our Camino and it was another day of fantastic views. I wish I could say the same about day 5, but it was a zombie walk for me due to the two hours of sleep I got at the Albergue Maralotx. We had a 10 person room there and the guy next to me was a world record snorer. At one point, I fantasized strangling him in the middle of the night. Regardless, the Maralotx has a nice dinner with a walnut salad, chick pea soup and vanilla pudding. As mentioned, the walk the next morning was not fun. The only thing I remember about the walk is visiting the free wine fountain in Estella at the Irache winery. I think the winery gives out 100 free liters of wine a day. In retrospect, I should have had the whole 100 liters myself.

We arrived at our next hostel, La Perla Negra, in Azqueta in early afternoon. The town was very small and the hostel was funky but nice. One of the volunteers was from New Albany, Indiana and we struck up a good conversation about the area. I washed some clothes by hand, had a shower, a short nap and then dinner. The meal was the 2nd best I’ve had so far. Rice, sautéed mushrooms and vegetables, a killer coconut milk tumeric veggie soup, baked scallops on a shell, followed by a sangria for dessert. The lady who owned the place was extremely nice and sent us on our way the next morning with a hug and a bell ring.

Today, we walked to a small town called Torres del Rio. The walk was as rural as it gets, with over 10 miles of beautiful scenery without a town in sight. We finally reached Los Arcos around 11 am and had a coffee and small egg and chorizo bocadillo. We also visited the church of Santa Maria which was extremely ornate and had several periods of art on display…most notably Baroque. We have a great, almost traditional, hotel in Torres del Rio. It has a small pool and I’m about to head down there now. Lots of pics from the last two days below.

My right hip has been very painful since I left Pittsburgh over three weeks ago. I can barely walk when I wake up, but it is almost 90% better when I start walking. I hope it holds up over the next few weeks..

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Camino Day 4 – Spectacular Scenery

We started our walk the next morning with a short, steep hike to the top of Alto del Perdon where the scenery was amazing…a 360 degree view of the valleys below. The majority of the day was one amazing view after another. We took a side road to the 12th century Eunate church of St. Mary. Well worth the 3 km detour.

We reached the city of Puente la Reina in the early afternoon where a celebration was going on. I am not sure what the celebration was about but there were several folks dressed up in very tall costumes dressed as kings, queens, jesters, etc. we bought two pizzas in one of the small shops and at them on the street while watching the celebration.

We then departed for the town of Cirauqui where we will spend tonight. The walk to Cirauqui was a killer as it is a town that sits high on a hill. The alberque where we are staying is at the top of the town. Again, the heat today did not makes things easy. Cirauqui is a town of streets that are like mazes and everything things to go uphill. A very cool town but if you don’t like walking uphill, don’t come here. We already had our beers and some wine at a local bar. We are now waiting for dinner to be served at 7pm.

We are starting to hit our stride and reserving rooms one day in advance. Tomorrow we are off to the town of Azqueta…we think it might be an easier day. But we thought today was going to be easy, but it didn’t turn out that way. Still, a great day…here are the pics:

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We weren’t sure what we were in store for when we booked our accommodations for today.  We knew it was a bit farther than we wanted, but the heat combined with the almost 18 mile walk was a bit too much.  We barely made it to the auberge, but we weren’t the only ones in bad shape.

I got a blister on my right foot late yesterday, and I was more than a little nervous about it all day.  But I patched it with Compeed last night and it held up all day today…even in the brutal conditions.  The day started with an encounter with another walker trying to feed a bunch of horses and one getting his foot stuck in barbed wire. Thankfully, the horse was able to free itself as it was a very stressful situation. 

We then walked through the city of Pamplona, stopping for a super sized hamburger in city center…one of the best I’ve ever had.  Then the 10 kilometer walk to our St. Andres auberge where the temperatures were at their worst.  We ran out of water with about 2 kilometers to go…all uphill.   Needless to say, we were happy to get settled and get to the auberge bar for some beer and food.

It’s going to be an early evening tonight and we will be scaling back on the walking tomorrow…maybe 13 or 14 miles  

Some pics from today:

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