Author: 2cdssrs

Walked today:10.3 mi Camino2023: 103 mi

After 4.5 miles, we reached the small village of Azofra, (pop 209) and stopped for a breakfast/rest break. It is the only place during today’s walk with services.

We seldom walk 8-10 miles per day on our Caminos, unlike the way we did 8-9 years ago. Instead, we only do so occasionally when the logistics require it and to blow out the carbon from our bodily pistons to boost our subsequent walk power. We also do an occasional walk like today because we can and to help us appreciate the typical 5-7 mile walks more.

After our break at the golf course, Linda considered trying to distract the club pro while Jim attempted to borrow a golf cart to carry us the final mile or so to our hotel rural. But rather than create an international incident, we opted instead to walk the final distance, arriving at our destination at 11:00, where we were welcomed by our hosts for the 5th time.

We had our meals today at the Bar Jacobeo, just a few steps from Casa Victoria on the village square: pizza for lunch and paella for supper.

It was a good day for us on Camino2023.

Walked today: 6.7 mi Camino2023: 93.1 mi

Our walk this morning was almost totally surrounded by vineyards. Other than the relatively short, rocky ascent to Alto de San Anton, the walk was not a challenge for us.

According to legend, the large open field between Nájera and the nearby village of Alesón is the location where the French knight, Roldán and the Syrian giant (9ft tall, 440 lbs) Ferragut did battle to decide whether the Christians or the Moors would rule this part of Spain. It also allowed the French army under Charlemagne to move on to Santiago. Roland prevailed by stabbing the giant in belly button, his legendary weak spot, and went on to become known as the best warrior of Christianity.

We stopped for breakfast on the way into Nájera about 9:30 and texted the apartment we had reserved and were told we could not check-in before noon.

When making our reservations back in April, most of the previous places we had stayed in Nájera were all booked. None of them were that appealing anyway, so we opted for an apartment instead. It turns out that this morning we were eating breakfast only two blocks from the apartment.

To make use of our wait time, we scouted out the immediate area, searching for a grocery store. We found one and did a walk through, planning our lunch, dinner and snack requirements for the day, anticipating that the apartment would have a fully equipped kitchen.

We finally were admitted to the apartment at noon and after a quick inspection of kitchen equipment and any other supplies available, Jim walked to the nearby supermarket with our shopping list. He was also equipped with his prized purchase from Biarritz, over 2 weeks ago, a heavy duty shopping bag.

The shopping bag has already served us well so far on Camino2023, whenever we made purchases that were too awkward to carry in hands or arms, or pockets, like wine, bottled water, multiple small items for snacks, etc.

Jim returned shortly with a full shopping bag and we were all set with fixings for lunch, dinner and a snack sandwich for the walk tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent napping and cooking and eating.

Tomorrow will be a long walk, so we’ll get to sleep early.

Walked Today: 8.1 mi Camino2023: 86.5 mi

We began walking at 6:10. It was still dark but the city lights made it easy to see our way. The temperature was a comfortable 61F, with a slight breeze.

For the first 45 minutes, we walked along city street streets for .75 miles, then another 1.5 miles through a nice park with high rise apartments on both sides.

As we reached the outskirts of the city the Camino entered a stretch of tree lined, paved walk/ bicycle/running paths with frequent benches along the way for nearly another 1.5 miles

Linda began chatting with Elena, from Southhampton, England. She had lived for two years in Logroño during the pandemic. She walked the Camino from Logroño to Santiago last year. She said the Camino had “called her back” to finish by walking from SJPDP to Logroño this year. Her dad is a college professor ( Chemistry) and had coincidentally, spent a year in Claremont-Ferrand, France on a sabbatical. Elena is planning to return to England to begin job hunting.

As Elena moved on ahead of us, the paved path then changed to dirt as it passed through a campground that included a lake, recreation area and, off in the distance, a golf course.

Some 2.5 miles later, after winding through an experimental agricultural project for tempranilla blanco grapes, we joined a paved frontage road that paralleled the expressway below us for another 2 miles into Navarrete.

On the edge of the town of Navarrete, (pop. 2952) we walked past a major bodega (winery) that convert the grapes growing on all the surrounding vines into delicious Rioja wines.

We relaxed in the town square while having a leisurely breakfast. Next we had a nice lady in the bar call a taxi to take us the remaining 4 miles to Ventosa, our destination for the day.

Señora Bonet, the owner was our host and also prepared and served a delicious dinner in her dining room.

Ventosa is a small village of 166 inhabitants. We’ve stayed at Las Aguedas three times before after discovering it by accident in 2014. It would rank among the finest B&B’s in the U.S. but cost 68€ for the two of us and dinner for two was 58€.

During and after dinner we chatted with Señora Benot about the possibility of returning to Ventosa via auto in the future and using Las Aguedas as a base for touring Rioja wineries. It would be an interesting way to return to the Camino again, but with a different format. Hmmm.

We’re apparently getting stronger because we were not as tired from today’s walk, even though it was one of our longer ones thus far. Our itching mosquito bites are still a nuisance, but nor a hindrance to Camino2023.

Walked today: 6.6 mi Camino2023: 78.4 mi

We stopped at Iglesia de Santiago Real on the walk into town to get our credentials stamped, but no stamps were to be found in the church, so we continued on.

We stopped at a restaurant on the main street of Logroño for a slow breakfast before getting to our hotel.

We got to our hotel at 10:00 and waited an hour before our room was ready. This was not a problem today because the lobby was cool and a comfortable place to get off our feet. And the wifi was good, so we had plenty to occupy our time as we waited.

After getting into our room, we got showers and then went out in search of pintxos for lunch, a specialty of Logroño.

After a couple of wrong turns, we discovered the section of Logroño where 20-30 pintxo bars are located. After a brief reconnaissance run, we selected a bar, then selected 4 different pintxos and then shared them along with a copa each of red wine.

After lunch, we stopped at a small market and bought some snacks and bottled water for tomorrow, then returned to our room.

The rest of the day was devoted to reading, blogging and napping. We had a light snack supper.

We also treated some mosquito bites due to some voracious insects who apparently invaded our room last night and did some snacking, no, had a banquet (Linda=20, Jim=30+) on both of us last night.

Walked today: 5.2 mi Camino2023: 71.8

We began walking at 5:45! It was still dark so we used a headlamp for the first mile or so, until first light made the lamp unnecessary.

The path was very straight, flat and monotonous for the first 90 minutes, making it easy to walk, as if still asleep, which might well have been the case.

our first hill and a slight wiggle in the path

Torres del Rio is the end of our walk today. Otherwise we would need to walk another very difficult 8 miles before the next stop. We did that walk in 2014, 2017 and 2019, but skipped it in 2022 as part of our modified Camino and again today.

We plan to catch the 11:25 bus from here to Viana, where we have reservations for tonight.

To occupy the almost 3 hour wait, we had breakfast and then camped out in the patio and lobby of La Pata de Oca, where we stayed in 2017. Our bus is scheduled to arrive at a stop only a few minutes walk away.

As we were waiting, we struck up a conversation with Stephano, from Italy. He completed a degree in economics then worked for a financial firm during the pandemic but realized he wanted something different. So he quit his job to give him some time to think about who he was and what he wanted for his future. He saw the Camino as tool to decide what direction he wanted his life to take. He started out walking too fast from SJPdP, treating it like a race and by the time he had reached Estella, he had a painful leg injury. After conferring with his doctor back home, the prognosis was to continue, but at a much slower pace to allow the injury to heal naturally. He said the last few days, taken at a slower pace had already given him new insights and perspectives. Our interesting chat on a variety of subjects made the time go by much faster for our wait and we also picked up some suggestions for his choice of Italian red wines.

We walked down to the bus stop at 11:10 and waiting in a nearby shady spot until it arrived at 11:30.

The bus dropped us off a couple blocks from our hotel in Viana. On the short walk to hotel, we noticed more than the usual Sunday crowd and many were dressed in typical festival red and white.

We checked in at noon but our room was not ready for another 30 minutes. We inquired about the apparent festival and the desk clerk confirmed the festival started yesterday and will continue through Wednesday. He also said that the 2:00 running if the bulls would pass under our hotel window.

We decided to leave our day packs in the hotel lobby and go out amongst the festival celebrants and partake of the free flowing wine and countless pintxo offerings.

After 30 minutes of bull running, the celebration continued with families and locals nearly all dressed in white shirts and bottoms, red bandannas and an occasional red sash… sitting together at tables along the main street, drinking wine and beer and munching pintxos for the rest of the afternoon until no pintxos could be found only drinks and people talking and laughing and enjoying each others company.

We ventured out at 5:30 for a ice cream bar for dessert and observed setups for evening music and entertainment in the main square. It appears that the festival will continue into the evening and hopefully we’ll sleep through it!

Viana has always been a town of surprises and today was among the best.

Walked today: 8.1 mi Camino2023: 66.6 mi

Even though we didn’t start until 6:30, the temperature was 49F and along with a nice breeze, the sun was only a minor issue. Of the 8 mile walk, nearly 6 of the miles were in the open fields with little or no shade and no rest stops.

Linda employed her portable shade generator as a precaution and gained additional confidence of it’s future value once we get to the flat, open plains of the meseta of northern Spain in a week or so.

We reached Los Arcos (pop. 1300) at shortly after 10:00. We parked ourselves in the town square and had our typical breakfast of toast and cafe con leche.

At 11:00 we walked a few more steps to Hostal Suetxe and were pleasantly surprised to be admitted to our room… which turned out to be spacious, comfortable and a real value at 65€.

We walked a few blocks to MAVI Bar/Restaurant and had a delicious main meal at 1:00.

After some downtime in the room, we ventured out at 5:30 to visit Iglesia de Santa María, one of the largest churches in Navara with beautiful examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and 100F. So, we’ll try to mitigate it by getting to sleep early and starting earlier in the morning to get to our destination before the heat of the day.

Today was a good one, tired from the walk but good recovery this afternoon.. after an 8 mile confidence builder.