Time Arrived: 9:45am
Distance: 10kms
Cumulative Distance; 165kms
Percentage Completed: 20.5%
Weather: Sunny and hot
Accommodation: Hotel Calles Mayor
Feelings: Henk - OK, Neil - Excited, Di - Relaxed
My blisters will need a few days to recover so yesterday's strategy of taking a bus whilst Henk and Neil walked the Camino prevailed again today. I do not want to get the blisters infected and I do not want to walk in pain.
Today's bus was a local, smaller one between Viana and Logrono with only two of the packed bus being walkers. The other walker was an inspiring 70 year old Colorado woman who had taken two weeks making her way to Viana. We sat together and she said she was a pilgrim rather than a tourist and was meeting her older husband at Santiago de Compostela in a few weeks time. This meant she would have to catch buses along the way. She said she was learning to cope by herself and maybe that was God was trying to teach her. I wondered what my blisters were trying to teach me! Accept what I am given, less planning and/or relax? A Canadian woman who is undertaking the walk at the same pace as us said, "God has the last laugh to those who plan!"
I wasn't sure where to get off the bus at Logrono as it was a much bigger city than I envisaged. I opted for the Central Station which was quite a few blocks from the old city centre where our accommodation was. I managed to combine a map in our tourist guide book, a map from Raw Travel and a map at a bus stop to get my bearings and make my way to our accommodation. We hadn't decided where to meet so it was good luck rather than good management that as I arrived at the hotel so did Henk and Neil! We did say at one point we would meet at the main plaza but as it turned out there seemed to be quite a few main plazas!
Henk and Neil had an easy walk through farmland again. They came across another boot on one of the Camino Way signs. They seem to becoming more frequent.
We were way too early to get into our hotel room but the friendly hotel receptionist allowed us to leave our backpacks whilst we looked around the old city. We opted firstly for a coffee and croissant at an outdoor cafe as it was a lovely cool morning.
We have now moved from the Navarre Province into La Rioja Province where Logrono is the capital. It is a wine city and also known for 50 small pincho restaurants/bars along two narrow streets and we made the most of this at lunch time and had delicious pinchos. We had difficulty choosing which bar to go into and the one we chose soon was filled with hungry Spanish. Pinchos are northern Spain's take on tapas. Neil had an English equivalent of Black Pudding which he said was delicious.
We visited two significant churches - Con-Catedral Santa Maria de la Rodonda and Iglesia de Santiago (St James).
It is always breathtaking to see the church interiors with their paintings, sculptures and gold and silver altars. St James is always easy to pick amongst the many with his distinctive hat, scallop shells and staff.
We had a lovely evening. We set off at 6.00pm and had a few drinks in the Plaza del Mercado with the Catedral Santa Maria de Redonda's towers looking over us. At the next table was a child's birthday party unfolding. It was a simple but enjoyable affair where the parents enjoyed each other's company and the children ran around the huge plaza. We then moved on to find a place for dinner. We are still getting used to the later eating hours and held off until a little later and had an enjoyable meal eating local produce.
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