Saturday 30 September. cooler today

Shorter stage today, about 10km plus city walking taking it to 18km.   QB, suffering from a back spasm made the wise choice of taking a taxi and enjoying the larger city.

Day started with light rain which ended by the time I got going.

Viana still has some of its old medieval city wall.

Soon one sees the grapes of Rioja which will officially start in a few kms. The camino route signage has become noticibly worse.  I had to use my GPX files several times today.  

The pleasent scent of fennel in the air helps a bit. 

The dirt above is fortunately very dry. The book description  is “the rich red clay soil of Rioja – beautiful in the sun and a nightmare in the wet as it clings to footware like a leech”.     Therese, Richard and the Boogs well remember this clay from Sienna. 

A bird spotting sanctuary on the top of a small hill.

A lake with shore birds and swans made more visible by scopes.

First view of Logroño a city of about 150K versus Pamplona’s 200K.

Community gardens on the outskirts

Entering the city proper one sees a site rarely if ever, actually never, seen in Palo Alto.  Streets washed and scrubbed after a giant hovering machine sweeps up all litter.   Very clean and delightful streets.

Bridge into the city proper.

To our great surprise the cathedral was open.  In many ways it looks like the one in Léon having a central area (not pictured) with a large gate around it.  

Crowded streets with tapas areas in full use. Many types.  We have choosen to eat a restaurant tonight – found what looks to be a good one- and eat tapas tomorrow night.   We are here for two nights to see this lovely Central City.  Not ideal that we got here on a Sunday. 

Some fine looking peppers. A regional speciality. Part of dinner tonight. Lunch was a picnic of fruit, cheese, gazpacho, cujada: French, French, Spanish, Spanish.  Oh, and some just average bread.

Inspired by Nancy and Jerome’s restaurant adventures and our desire for a better menu than offered to pelegrinos – a late dinner for us and early for Spain:

Cannot get, by the glass, the Reserva or Gran Reserva we settled for Crianza.  

some suckling pig for a first time, possibly.

The bread with tomatoes is Pan de Cristal which apparently is a registered trademark.  Very similar to ciabatta as QB pointed out before I finished researching.