Jimandi

• Distance today:                     5.5 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:   119.2 mi

Today’s walk was relatively short and mostly unremarkable, by design, as our main objective was to stay in Ventosa at the Hotel Rural Las Aquedas, a significant highlight of our previous Camino.

Furthermore, the normal stopping points available for the 45 miles after Logroño would require 4 or 5 days in a row of walking 10 miles. By staying last night in Navarrete and tonight in Ventosa, our mileage from Logroño for the next several days will be: 8, 5, 6, 9, 7, 10… resulting in an extra overnight but hopefully much easier on our feet and bodies.

Las Aquedas (63€) would be considered a very nice B&B in the U.S., so for us it seems like a bargain.  It is owned and run by Rocio Juesas Bonet, a gracious Spanish Señora. She welcomes you like an old friend into her beautifully decorated home, a converted 18th century bakery.

Our room (the same room we occupied in 2014) is spacious with a modern bathroom and separate vanity area, solid hardwood doors and trim, classic furniture, comfortable seating, a crystal chandelier over a king size bed, marble tiled floors and well placed windows that create natural cross ventilation eliminating the need for air conditioning even in the middle of August.

There is a common, functional living area for guests, suitable for reading, a game of cards or just enjoying the view of the surrounding mountains, valleys, vineyards and farmland.

Dinner guests are received in her green garden before being seated at her dining room table and served traditional and deliciously prepared Northern Spain foods, family style.

Because Las Aquedas is located on the Camino, the blend of Camino and non-Camino guests, potentially from anywhere in the world, makes for a unique, enriching dinner conversation and experience.

Tonight we were the only guests in the inn for dinner, but our culinary experience was still outstanding as well as our interaction with our hostess.

There is still a very special feeling about this place. Today was the most comfortable, restful day and evening so far on Camino 2017.  An unforgettable experience and memory.

 

1. Distance today:                     8.1 mi
2. Distance Camino 2017:   113.7mi

Today was a walk-in-the-park, at least for the first 4 miles. Shortly after walking through and leaving Logroño center city, we were directed to a wide, brick paver walkway surrounded by green grass and children’s play areas, which divided what appeared to be large apartment buildings, which extended for at least a half-mile.

The walkway then began winding through more green areas and a small pond and eventually narrowed as we left the city, but continued as a paved walk/bike trail with concrete benches every few hundred feet for at least another 1.5 miles. The concrete path became a dirt path through a camping park with playgrounds, a lake and a nearby golf course (according to signage). We stopped at a bar in the park that was just opening and had a cafe and shared a tortilla.

During our combination breakfast stop/feet rest, we chatted with a young couple in their late 60’s from Holland, Pete & Katia. They were walking their 5th Camino, but started from Pamplona each time to avoid the difficult first stage over the Pyrenees. We asked them to take a photo of us before they departed. They were walking a bit faster than we, so we wished them “buen Camino” as we left the rest stop together.

Rain has been threatening all morning and we can see showers in the distance. When a few drops hit us, we stopped, put on our pack rain covers and put our ponchos in an easy to reach place, then continued on.  Like carrying an umbrella, activating our rain gear can prevent rain as it did today!

The rest of the walk was also on pavement, a road winding through and up the side of a hill through vineyards and an asphalt path parallel to the highway until we got on dirt again just outside Navarrete, where we got back on asphalt and climbed a very steep hill into this small town (pop. 2865).

As soon as we entered Navarrete at the top of the hill, we stopped at the first bar for orange juice/cafe con leche and another feet rest.

We continued on into and almost to the opposite side of town before reaching albergue El Cántaro.

The owner, whose wife completed the Camino in 2015, said they didn’t open until 12:00 but he allowed us to check in anyway and guided us to our room.

There is a festival going on in town, so immediately after we completed our chores, we walked back to town center for a pintxos lunch

plus a visit to the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, which has one of the most impressive baroque retablos in all of Spain.

Linda acquired two small blisters with today’s longer walk, but applied her standard treatment and as with previous ones, should not be a problem.

We walked back into the main town square at 6:00 p.m. to get something to eat. But every restaurant or pintxos bar we went to, the food was either gone or picked over due to the apparent large festival turnout. We finally found a couple of sandwiches and were about to return to the room when a band marched by and we followed it to an arena next to the square. We couldn’t believe our eyes, so we bought two tickets and attended a bullfight!

It was really neat. Great fun to watch 5 young toreros (a torero is a bullfighter, whereas, a matador is a torero who actually kills the bull in the bullfight) ranging from low teens to maybe 20 perform in the ring and neither toreros nor bulls were hurt.

So ended another gem of a day on the Camino Frances.

• Distance today:                      6.7 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:     105.6mi

When we left our penćion at 7:15 a.m., Linda smelled baking bread. We followed our noses in the opposite direction of the Camino until we came upon a bakery that was just opening for business, made an appropriate purchase, reversed direction and ate a light breakfast as we walked out of Viana.

After our rollercoaster walk yesterday, the rather flat, unremarkable section of Camino between Viana and Logroño was a welcome change. Most of the morning we walked on pavement or dirt paths with fist size embedded stones creating a nuisance rather than a major hazard.

We walked through a number of underpasses while weaving through the roads accessing Logroño, the capital of the wine making region of Rioja.

Graffiti is common on all underpasses on the Camino. They contain the usual religious, political, humor and maybe even gang territorial markings. But today, because we walked through so many, the artwork and writings made more of an impression.

After a moderately steep, paved descent, we continued through a nice park along the Rio Ebro before crossing the 19th century Puente de Piedra into Logroño (pop. 150,000).

The original bridge was built by Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the 11th century and rebuilt by his disciple, San Juan de Ortega.

On our way to finding our room for tonight, we stopped at a nice bar and had cafe con leche and a variation of our usual tostadas, with Jim having a small baguette with chorizo and egg.

We used the bar as a base camp as Jim ventured off, packless, to find our Pencion. Not an easy task, after 15-20 minutes and aid from two pedestrians, a shop worker and two policemen our obscure destination, Hostal La Numantina (60€) was located.

Our double room is spacious, new, clean and has a balcony with clothesline, wifi is strong and has the best shower we’ve experienced thus far… and therefore not too pricey considering its location in city center.

Chores completed, we had ensalada mixtas at one of hundreds of nearby bars for lunch, followed by a visit to Iglesia de Santiago en Real, a visit to a large fresh market, a walk and sitting in the shade at Espolón Square and nap (Jim) and reading (Linda) for the rest of the afternoon.

For supper, we had to wait until 8:00, since all eating establishments close at 4:00 and reopen at 8:00.  There are at least several 100 pintxos bars and restaurants within a three block radius of our hotel. All were standing room only at 8:00 and it’s a weekday evening!  I guess everyone gets hungry waiting for dinnertime.  We finally gave up and ordered at a bar where we stood up while splitting four pintxos with a glass of wine.

That wasn’t working so we moved on until finding another restaurant with a half empty table, sat down and sampled two more pintxos and two desserts, before walking back to our room at 9:30 to get some sleep before our hike early tomorrow morning.

• Distance today:                   6.6 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:     97.9mi

A few minutes after leaving Torres del Rio we began a rollercoaster ride. A 3 mile rollercoaster ride going up and down and up and down with very short intervals of flatness to recover. The good news was the mostly absent sun. Every time we reached a peak, the ever rising sun got stronger, but we then headed down again to a bottom then back up again, all the time shaded by the hills around us.

After about 3 miles we carefully maneuvered our way down a steep hill with over a dozen, steep switchbacks into an apparent valley and took advantage of the reprieve to munch a walking breakfast of a tortilla (frittata) in a baguette. We know, it doesn’t sound all that appetizing, but with growling stomachs, it was delicious and gave us a needed burst of energy for what came next.

Coincident with swallowing our last bites, the valley stroll changed into the steepest climb of the morning as we inched back up to the top into the sun and adjacent to a two lane highway that has shadowed the Camino since Roncesvalles.

The shade gone now, we put on our hats and walked the next mile or so either beside or on the asphalt pavement, which fortunately had scant auto/motorcycle traffic on this Sunday (Domingo) morning.

Just before we arrived at Viana, the Camino veered away from the highway and we followed a dirt path until entering the town limits at 9:45 am.

Viana is dominated by the Iglesia Santa María de la Asunción, a very large Gothic style church built between 1250-1312. It’s massive door was locked, unfortunately typical of many churches on the Camino ( go figure), so we took some outside photos of the impressive structure and moved on.

The Camino continued along Rua de Santa María through this delightful walled town with attractive cafes which specialize in pintxos. Our brunch, lunch and dinner consisted of a variety of pintxos sampled at cafes, mere steps from Pencion San Pedro, our Viana residence for the next 20 hours.

We had a brief panic when Linda’s backpack wasn’t included with those delivered to our hotel. The hotel manager got on the phone and tracked it down and arranged to have it expedited to our hotel, averting a potential issue. The pack was delivered a couple of hours after we checked in and Jim left Linda to catch up on her routine activities, while he ventured out into the town and began sampling pintxos and tinto (red Navarre wine). After verifying they we were indeed in a pintxos paradise, Jim returned to the room and with Linda sought out one of true delicacies of the Camino Frances.

An extraordinary Camino moment occurred while we were savoring our pintxos. First, a 70+ (young) something Spanish serenader began singing with a opera quality voice, personally serenading various people seated at tables lining the Rua Santa María outside the cafes. After several marvelous performances, a lady at one of the tables began singing with him, she with an equally professional voice. They appeared to be singling out people who they knew and making a personal tribute to them in the serenade.

This was all impromptu and just folks enjoying themselves and each other.  Several other male and females joined in and we sensed we were in the midst of an opera. We did not know any of the pieces they were singing, but we couldn’t help but become engaged as teary eyes appeared in several singers and listeners alike. It was a very moving experience and helped us appreciate the lifestyle and values of this community and others that have based their existence on supporting pilgrims on the Camino Frances for over 1000 years.

With smiles on our faces and our pintxo appetites sated (for today), we relaxed outside the Cafe la Rua in the warm, dry afternoon shade for just a while longer before retiring to our room for the day.

• Distance today:                      4.8 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:        91.3mi

We decided to take advantage of an open-at-6:30-bar just a few steps from our room and have a light breakfast before we walked, changing our routine. By the time we got back to our room, packed up and left, it was 7:30.

It’s 49 degrees but the sun is up and should warm the delightfully refreshing morning air pretty quickly.

Our walk today was pretty easy, just under 5 miles. We walked mostly through wheat fields and several vineyards and small olive orchards. The first village we passed was Sansol. It offered a picturesque setting, perched on a hill overlooking the surrounding farms. We stopped for a glass of orange juice after about 3 miles.

The next village, less than a mile away, was Torres del Rio, our destination for today. We’re giving ourselves an easy day today because tomorrow’s walk will be twice as long. We’re still babying our bodies a bit, while we tone our leg muscles, let our packs morph into our bodies and develop a good walking rhythm that’s knee and feet friendly.

We were able to check into our room at albergue Pata del Oca (50€) shortly after we arrived at around 10:30. Our room was apparently the only one not occupied last night but the albergue is “completo”, fully booked tonight.

The albergue’s exterior and interior is medieval in decor and construction but very clean and well maintained whether you are in a dorm/bunk bed type room (10€) or a double room with bathroom like ours. There is little to do or see in this small village (pop. 156), but we’ll be very comfortable just chillin’ in the albergue courtyard, checking out the Iglesia de Santo Sepulcro, or resting in our “habitacion “.

We made a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (1€) and found it to be interesting and mysterious.

The church was built in the 12th century and the Crucifix at the altar is from the 13th century. The master builder who designed it and the sculptors who adorned it were Mudejar working in the service of Christian employers. It’s construction and use are assumed, but not confirmed, to be Templar, because it does not have a typical floor. It is the only church that has a done over a single octagonal floor.

We skipped the pilgrim dinner and had a light snack then retired for the evening.  Today we passed the 100 mile mark… only 400 to go!

 

• Distance today: 8.5 mi
• Distance Camino 2017: 86.5mi

To begin our day, we needed to take a taxi from Estella to Villamayor de Monjardin to rejoin the Camino where we finished yesterday. However, at 7:15 a.m. there were no taxi’s to be found in the city of Estella!

We started out by walking to the bus station (estacion), where no one was to be found. We finally found a bus ticket clerk, who essentially said she didn’t do taxi’s, so it was apparent she wouldn’t help us. So we began walking, picking up the Camino through town, hoping to find some help. When we were on the edge of town, Linda stopped a lady and asked how we could get a taxi. The lady mentioned the bus station but Jim said there was nothing there. She then took out her cellphone and did searches and made at least 8 phone calls with no answers!! Finally she asked if we would walk with her and we said sure and Jim thanked her for being so nice.

We ended up walking back into town to a police station where the lady approached an officer at the desk and apparently complained about there being no taxi service for these poor pilgrims (Jim tried to look as helpless as possible to give credibility to our rescuer.) When the officer seemed clueless she confronted him again and apparently was given a number to call. We followed her out to the street as she made another call, hung up and then explained to us (very clearly, I’m sure, if we only knew more Spanish) that someone would be here to take us wherever we wanted. We thanked her and she wished us “buen Camino” as she walked away.

In less than 2 minutes a white van with some type of municipal logo on it pulled up to us on the curb, a driver got out, helped us put our packs into the vehicle and after we were in the van, asked if the charge of 13€ to Villamayor was ok. Jim enthusiastically said “si”, since our taxi drive from Villamayor to Estella yesterday was 25€!

Ten minutes later at 7:50 a.m., we were back on the Camino walking out of Villamayor de Monjardin.

The weather was kind to us again today. Even though we started an hour later with the sun already rising overhead, the heat was not a factor with a slight breeze in 60’s.

The Camino today was all dirt path, mostly flat with only a few gradual elevation changes.

We walked almost entirely along grain fields and vineyards. We’re a bit early for grape harvests and the blackberries are still bitter, so free morning fruit snacks are yet to come.

There were no bars or services between Villamayor and Los Arcos, so we ate a sandwich (purchased last night) for breakfast, as we walked. By 10:45 a.m., our legs and feet were letting us know that it was about time to stop for the day, as we entered the small town of Los Arcos (pop.1244) after walking 8 miles without a break.

 

Los Arcos occupies an ideal location by the Río Odrón and at the crossroads of two ancient trade routes, and was once a Roman city (Curnonium). The current name comes from a battle in 914 when three Sanchos (the kings of Navarra, Castilla and Aragon) fought over the town. The Navarran army won with the help of their excellent archers, therefore the coat of arms of the city contains bows (arcos) and arrows. In medieval times, the city was a place for toll collection and changing money. Los Arcos flourished as a market town, becoming quite wealthy with all this pilgrim commerce.

We found a table in the town Plaza next to the Iglesia de Santa María de la Asunción and had a belated cafe con leche and tostadas for breakfast while we waited for the albergue to open after 12:30.

Jim located our targeted albergue and it looked a bit too shabby, especially for 46€ with a shared showers and 🚽 and it was also located just outside the town and away from the Plaza, where all the “action” and services were. So he walked around the Plaza looking for an alternative and found Pencion Mavi only 20 steps from the Plaza, with a private bathroom for 50€… so we moved in at 12:10.

(“Reserving” a place in most accommodations along the Camino is not guaranteed by either party. Only a name is given and if the room is not claimed by noon or in some cases by 2 pm, it’s first come first served. So it is not necessary to cancel a “reservation” if plans change, consequently, no one will be deprived of a room if we don’t show)

We washed all our dirty clothes today and hopefully they will be dry in the morning, in spite of the lower temperature, less wind and limited direct sunshine on our room balcony.

At a little passed 5 pm and just prior to an evening service, we visited St Mary’s Church.  We gasped as we entered one of the largest and most beautiful churches on the Camino Frances. The wooden floors and multitude of wooden carvings created a warm and inviting ambiance in the midst of such extraordinary artwork.

Photos cannot begin to transmit what we saw, but here is an attempt at sharing it with you.

Clothing clean and dry, tummies full from tasty pilgrim’s dinner in the Plaza in the warm afternoon sun,

we retired to our room to conclude another wonderful day on the Camino Frances.