We spent last night in a wonderfully comfortable apartment. One a family should have been living in, but like in major cities all over the world it has been converted to tourist use thereby making living in the city impossible for the actual residents-the residents we tourists come to see. Not a positive feedback loop.
Anyway, it was nice and we had a restful night. We woke up at the late hour of 6:45am, hoping to be out on the main plaza our apartment fronted by 8:00am. We wanted to drop Sally and Becky’s packs off at the municipal albergue to be shipped to our next town, Ventosa. We couldn’t have them picked up at the apartment we were in, so last night we made arrangements at the municipal albergue to leave them there for pick up. We were told we could not drop them until 8am, hence our late leaving time.
When we got to the albergue, the doors and gates were locked. We banged on the front door and got a pilgrims attention. He said he wasn’t supposed to let anyone in and to try the back gate. We already had, but we went back and looked again anyhow. Nope. Still locked. But the man inside exited and left the door ajar. We were able to get in and dropped their packs. We started up the street when we heard Nico coming up the street behind us. Becky and Nico then walked together; they walk quicker.
We walked for a mile or so through the Lagroño city streets, stopping to buy fruit along the way. The route continued through city parks as we worked our way to the city limits and then out into the wheat, barley, oat and rape seed fields.
Just as we were leaving the last vestiges of the city we came upon a wood stand, reminiscent of a fruit stand. In it, a white bearded man was seated, signing post cards and selling a few pieces of fruit and some Camino trinkets. He didn’t say much, just signed cards. The post cards were a photo of him decked out in flashy stylized pilgrim garb. He had large photos of himself on the back wall.
I bought an apple and an orange and he gave us a signed postcard. €2.
The route paralleled the busy highway on which Maxi had driven us back to Logroño. At one point we passed by some kind of wooden pallet recycling facility, very loud as it crunched wooden boards into splinters. Also, we walked through the very same vineyards we had seen from the highway yesterday. Eventually we walked over a bridge that spanned the construction site of a new freeway. From this vantage point we could see the hilltop town of Navarrete just ahead.
We walked up into the town. We had heard large explosions coming from it as we approached from the opposite hill. The town was very cute, the roads level as they curled around the nob shaped hill. We stopped at a cafe to eat, but when I went in to use the bathroom prior to ordering I saw one very rushed worker and a line of seven pilgrims waiting to be helped. We dropped down one ring of streets to a building called cafeteria and order two sandwiches and a coke. One was not enough so we snuck a can of Pepsi I had been carrying all morning and poured it into our glasses. We stopped in a grocery and bought tortellini for dinner along with peppers and eggs for breakfast. With that, we walked out of town and back into the vineyards.
Eventually the route turned off the frontage road and up to our town for the night, Ventosa.
It had been overcast all day, and cold, but never rained. A steady wind blew. It has been unseasonably cold since we dropped into Spain from the Pyrenees, 10-20° below normal. Mornings are in the low 40’s, highs in the high 50’s.
We found our albergue and walked up to our second floor room. There were two bunk beds and one regular bed. Sally, Becky and I took up 3, Nico the fourth and a woman from France the fifth. Nice group.
Washed my socks and shirt and hung them up to dry. Ha!! We were already at the dew point. They didn’t dry a bit in the three hours they hung outside. I hung them on the end of my bed. At 2:00am I woke, they were still wet. I put them on, trusting my body heat to dry them. By 5:30am, when we got up only the toes were a bit damp.
We cooked our tortellini in the communal kitchen wedging our pots and frypan onto the burners in our turn. It was lively and fun in the kitchen. After dinner Sally and I trooped downstairs and watched an episode of Ted Lasso on my phone, sharing an earbud each. It was superb.
With that, the day closed and I was asleep by 9:30pm.
Fancy bedroom overlooking the cathedral plaza in Logroño
Aparece but functional kitchen
Living area
Becky and Nico ham it up on a pilgrim statue in Logroño
The sage of the Camino
Navarrete comes into view
We are not alone on this Camino-always near a crowd
Many cities put markers in the sidewalks to guide pilgrims through town
What did the Spanish do with all the gold they stole from the Incas? hmmm . . . I think I know
Vineyard soil doesn’t appear to have high requirements
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