Day 8- Viana to Logroño

Walked: 6.6 mi. Camino2025: 55 mi.

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

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.

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.

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.