Day: May 20, 2025

Day 9- Logroño to Navarrete

Walked: 0 mi. Camino2025: 55 mi.

So, we had a restful Monday night, slept in this morning and took a taxi to Navarrete, our targeted destination. The walk to Navarette would have been 7.5 miles!

We got checked-in almost immediately and settled into our new digs.

We walked to a nearby restaurant and ordered a main meal, realizing we were not that hungry. While Jim is definitely in the late stages of this bug, Linda has got theoretically at least two to three days to reach the same point.

Beef cheeks marinated in red wine for Jim and roasted chicken for Linda. The cheeks never had a chance, only a few fries were consumed by both. A few bites of chicken was all Linda felt like having. We both ate good portions of an ensalada rusa.

We both are still weak, probably able to push ahead if we wanted to, but we don’t have anything to prove and rest and time seem to be on our side.

On the way back to our room we noticed the Iglesia de la Asunción was open! So we walked up the hill and stepped inside.

Iglesia de la Asunción of Navarette
Santiago greeted us as we entered…
… and then we gasped at what some call the most impressive golden retablo in all of Spain. (we opted not to turn on the lights and disturb some praying parishioners) But, even in low lights it was truly impressive as we remembered from several Caminos earlier.

We think Jim may have gone through the worst systems faster, unknowingly, by continuing to walk while feeling weak. So by giving Linda time off, she may need an extra day to work through the cough and weakness.

We were encouraged by Jim’s rapid recovery in muscle aches and strength by mid-afternoon today versus the same time yesterday. It was Linda’s idea to walk up the hill, indicating she’s doing better, but she’s definitely not where she wants to be yet.

So by late afternoon, we decided we would give ourselves another day of rest. The timing is great because our hotel checkout time is 11a.m. vs 8:00 for most albergue’s. This means we’ll spend less time waiting and more time resting between checkout-checkin.

Linda is resting well and not hurting, but for stomach muscle soreness from the coughing Monday afternoon and evening. Again, the same soreness Jim experienced two days ago. So another day to rest and not push makes sense and comes at little or no cost… only if you are in a race or trying to prove something. And that is not where we are at!

So, we’ll replace a morning walk of 7.2 miles tomorrow (Wednesday) with another sleep-in before taking a taxi late morning to our next destination, Asofra to focus on recovery instead of logging more miles.

Buen Camino!

Day 8- Viana to Logroño

Walked: 6.6 mi. Camino2025: 55 mi.

Leaving Viana through the gate of St. Felices.
The immediate area after leaving Viana was rather rundown, but then the path joined a paved farm road, winding through vineyards and some grains and other crops.
We are really enjoying seeing the colors of spring on the Camino for the first time.

And just to add to the scenic walk, the Camino provided a mini-forest.
A cleverly built overpass for pilgrims and wannabes took us safely over the highway into Logroño and continued our shady walk thru more trees.
At this point our walk left the great wine region of Navarre and entered another great wine region, La Rioja.

Shortly after crossing into La Rioja, the path became paved, took us under a major road into Logroño then began to climb.

The path started out with a slight incline but got steeper as we continued.
We walked through this freshly painted underpass. The painter was still at work, covering all the graffiti accumulated over the years… making way for new graffiti, intended or not.
Note the increasing incline ahead.
Once we arrived at the top we looked back at Viana in distance.
Clearing the top of the incline and bearing left, the path gave us our first glimpse of Logroño.

The final mile to Logroño was all downhill, but in a nice way. At the bottom of the hill we walked past a funeral home/crematory (with a sigh of relief) then through a welcoming park along the Rio Ebro and crossed the bridge into Logroño.

This is a view from the park of the Rio Ebro and the Puente de Piedra. Originally built by Santo Domingo de Calzada in the 11th century, then rebuilt by his disciple, San Juan de Ortega, the current structure was completed in the 19th century.
Iglesia de Santiago el Real, seen on our walk through Logroño to our hotel.

We checked into our hotel at 12:00 and crashed. We were both exhausted. We took only a few minutes to catch our breath, then decided to get our main meal then rest the remainder of the day.

The Co-Catedral Santa María de la Redonda located on the square near our restaurant. We’ve never been inside… always closed when we were here.
We ordered an ensalada Iberia for Linda and ensalada Marinera for Jim.

Fortunately, both ensaladas were delicious. Unfortunately Jim could only eat about half of his and Linda couldn’t make it past her second bite. We asked for the equivalent of a “doggy bag” in broken Spanish/sign language and with a fridge in our room, figured we’d share her salad later after getting off our feet.

We used the last strength in our bodies to make it back to the room and were in for the day.

The rest of the story:

Jim started having cold/virus symptoms three days ago that peaked with lots of sinus drainage and coughing spasms. Most of his symptoms have reduced to mild sinus drainage and self induced coughing to avoid chest congestion. So it appears to be a 3 day or so thing.

Linda began having similar symptoms This morning before we left Viana and had seen things get worse during our walk.

The result is, simultaneously, trying to fight a bug and walk 6-7 miles a day, for us, might not be a good strategy. This also explains why Jim didn’t seem to be acclimating to a normal walking routine as quickly as on previous Caminos.

So, we will alter our plans only slightly, to maximum recovery while continuing to make progress toward Santiago.

Our bags will be transported to Navarrete, as planned. We don’t have to checkout of our hotel in Logroño until noon, so we’ll sleep in, then get a taxi from our hotel at noon on Tuesday to our hotel in Navarrete, thus skipping our walking for Tuesday. We’ll review our status on Tuesday-Wednesday morning and any similar adjustments to our plan.

Blogger update: Our wifi and cell service was sporadic enough to prevent sending this post until Tuesday morning. Linda’s symptoms peaked late Monday and she continued to improve through the night, actually getting some good quality sleep, as did Jim. We’re just chillin in the room giving ourselves permission to take the day off as planned.