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:
