Boog's Blog

Monday 2 October 

Spanish hotel rooms: double beds, booked for two persons and yet can never get a second luggage  rack.  Maybe we succeeded once.

Today’s walk: “one of the nicer walks” QB remarked. 

Garmin 20.5 km

iPhone 16km

Android 18 km

The second large church in Logroño is Santiago which we encounter just before leaving the city. Wonderful polychrome, including Jimmie (St. James to others).

Literally a walk in the park continues for 7.5km.  Nice lake for wildlife, birds, and forested areas, red squirrels.  QB took, possibly, 20+ pics. 

Lovely trails in the park.

Stopping for coffee is always challenge to find seating away from smokers.  Smoking does not seem to have diminished here. Spoke with an Aussie with similar views to ours; also used to a smoke free environment.

Grapes have been harvested.  Found a few still on the vine.  Sweet with durable skins.

Almond trees, with signs saying do not take any.

View entering another hill city, Navarrete. Ruins of a 12th century pilgrims hospital. 

The guide book says not to miss the retablo in the Church of the Assumption.  Says to pay for the lighting of the room, and not to leave town until it is open.

Also in Assumption, offen where to organist sits,:

When is a shower not a shower? When does a device for getting off the grime of the walk have an interface more complicated than my smart phone?

Answer:. when it is of swedish design.  Have seen this before in Denmark though there it had piped in music, with controls of course, as well as LED mood lighting, with mood controls as well.  This one is a basic model.

Dinner can only be described as a reprise of faulty towers.

Sunday October 1 Slight rain for a short while.  Hopefully not enough to affect the red clay for the walk tomorrow.

First stop, the cathedral.  Timing was perfect as we got to hear the organ playing for Sunday mass.  It was in the enclosed central section mentioned yesterday.

Service, mass,  picture, see green robes.

Leaving the church, in the same square was a flea market and a degustar of mushrooms being set up.

Few Spanish cities have been more fought over than Logroño. Few medieval monuments remain as the fighting started in 755 (defeat of Moors) and continued through the Carlist wars of the 19th century.

Laundry and treat in Oro de Costal 

Mushroom festival was a definite ball of string.  One booth, one type, buttons, sampled, 2 € with a drink.

Stopped and purchased a half bottle of a slightly aged Crianza.  In this case the higher price did reflect a taste we preferred.  According to the wine shop Reserva and Gran Reserva do not exist in half bottles.

Paired this with our remaining cheese and French apples.  Not so perfect still life follows. 

Tapas dinner on San Juan Street, one of the two long tapas streets. Went in search for peppers de padrón and other favorites.

First over to Santiago, two aspects. Closed off course.

The goose game, played by children, using dice or dies.

Excellent tapas night on San Juan Street.

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.

Friday 29 September very warm near end of walk.

Checked carefully, we are staying in Viana only one night.   Today’s walk included one of the highest and steepest climbs of the Camino according to one book.  

Garmin 21.1 kms

Android 20

iPhone 18

Book 19.3

Not so much the highest;.  about 1200 ft of climbing.  Several hill towns along the way,  Sansole being the first.

Then came Torres del Río which is down a steep incline and then up another incline. In the center is a 12th century Romanesque of octagonal design based on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The literature describes it as enigmatic.

Iglesia del Santo Sepulchre.

Another of the self made rest stops offering drinks and food and asking for donations. This one contained a nice collection of hitos, the stacked bricks that mark the road (also called miles – Román miles).

Viana is a hilltop walled City (bastide) of a certain age. Only parts are left, as is only part of a large church, now a ruin, adjacent to the wall.

View of the ruin from our hotel window, and a nice way to see how it was constructed.

The main historic attraction here is the very large Santa Maria.  Naturally closed but open for pilgrims Mass during dinner hour.  

To see the church I went to a pilgrims mass. Usually they are friendly affairs. Not here. Serious mass, long, not welcoming,  100% in Spanish, an extra long sermon for the pelegrinos.

Thursday 28 September

Distance:. basically zero except for wandering about the village.

Second night here after the mix up in Estella. Decided to stay here rather than try and fix the luggage transport going forward.  

Nice rest day. The hotel, rural type, is 300 plus years old, lovingly refurbished about four years ago.

The breakfast room gives a sense of the place.

 Naturally the church was closed. Have not seen anyone using the Frontón (jai also) this trip.  Asked about it and was told that it is used in the summer by the children.  Our previous trip we say only rather aged and portly men playing, and playing very well and vigerously with a crowd watching.

Now there is a car parked there.

Short stroll about this small town and we found the sculpture (museo) exhibit.  No explanations.

Dinner oddity.  Never happen in France.  Not too surprising for Spain where food service is far far less money oriented. 

When we gave our dinner order, menú de pelegrinos, we were told we could order two entrees.  Didn’t but could have.  I ordered an extra salad.

Wednesday 27 September

A messy and expensive mix up, a road not taken, a good if shorter walk.

First the mess up.   I thought we booked  one night at Tximista. Nope, two.  Did not discover the error until we tried to check into Mues (Los Arcos berb) a day early.  

Error was mine; hotel did not mention that we were leaving early (pre-paid), luggage company called Follow the Camino booking company about luggage transport but no one followed up with us.

Distance: 16.5 kms

So, we will stay here two nights and pay for the extra night and pay to have a taxi pickup our luggage from  Tximista and deliver here.

Walk begins on a good path ever climbing.

The first attraction is the Irache winery. Famous for having an outdoor spigot which dispenses unlimited wine.   Also it’s ajoining 10th century monestery.   Ran out of wine and monestery closed.  

Wine is quite inexpensive there. That is less than 2 Euros.

When we stopped for coffee and a roll in a small town learned another bit of Spanish.  I asked how to say the name of the pastry (pan ou chocolate) in Spanish.   Neopolitan.  I asked another if this is correct and a third, Italian woman who said also called this in Italy.  Tasted fine.

Small lovely open (few have been) church in Monjardin.  12th century with lovely polychrome. 

We took a taxi from Monjardin.  The guide book describes the walk to Los Arcos  as  of interminable boredom.  Checked our  blog from 2010 which described it as South Dakota with wind. Search on blog for Los Arcos and earlier post will appear.  

Taxi took us to Los Arcos with its magnificent church.

Los Arcos, Now small with 1200 inhabitants, must have been quite rich to build this Santa Maria church.

Tuesday 26 September warm 

A little shorter day as we took a taxis about 6km to a nearby hilltown.  Several more hilltowns, cute and medieval were on the path.

Android 22.3

IPhone 21

Garmin 23.9 km

We walked through Puente, shot of the famous six arched bridge, sister to the one in Pamplona.

My previous Camino (this route) was by bike.  So very different as then I saw mostly roads and the towns.  This time the Román roads, paths of rocks, and some lovely graded roads.  The scenery is, of course, much nicer when it can be observed slowly.

Many excellent views from the hilltown.  This is the entrance to Ciriquia. 

and a road in.

and a road out.

Road eventually becomes agricultural with olives and grapes and almonds.  The soil, a red clay, looked exactly like the stuff that we walked with Therese and Richard in Siena, only dry this time. Was some of the worst “mud” we have ever encountered.

Along the way a young man from Pamplona was putting in a rest spot, camping spot, library, scenic stop in an olive Grove. Rented the space from the owner in exchange for picking labor.

Hay stacks on the way.

Not one hotel has had decent WiFi.  Not the 5 star or this 4 star.  Have had to use Tmobile bandwidth for all posts.  T-Mobile is 2G, at its best, in this part of Spain.

River Ega runs behind  our hotel for the night.

Monday 25 September

Walk with the crossing if a “Hill”.  Altura de Perdón.

Distances again:

iPhone 24 km

Android, in same vest 26.9

Garmin 26.7

Book 25.5

Terrain:. walk starts downhill to Visit Menor and then wends its way uphill to the top of  Altura de Perdón, 770 meters.

On the way we passed a lovely 13th century church, Parroquia San Andrés.  Lovely polychrome.

At the top of the pass it was, of course, very windy.  40 large windmills have been installed. QB pictured for scale.

Artwork for the Camino, well known and photographed at the top.

The top of the pass is also the demarcation line between the Pamplona Valley and the next.  Got much warmer as we started the very steep and rocky descent.  About 45 minutes of this:

After these “bits” the road surface and grade became enjoyable again.  Stopped for salad bite in Utrega before finishing just before the bridge in Puente de Reina.

No wildlife sightings today; we missed seeing the almond trees for the dirt of the road.

Buffet dinner with six others walking the way.  Tend to meet up at odd and unplanned times. Not great food but ok with ample quantities for hungry wanderers.

Sunday 24 September

Rest day, needed.  Laundry, Cathedral, wandering.

Breakfast was a different type of buffet:served one.  Different and with smoked salmon.  I got QB’s portion.

Individual olive oil in capillary ambules

Yesterday we mentioned a festival. Elizabeth asked if there were giant heads. I erroneously said no.  Well, it was the festival of San Fermín, well described online. Had the official one in July and it was so successful that they scheduled another for now. Yes, giants.

Laundry and cathedral were mentioned in the preamble.  Laundry done.  Cathedral and wantdering not so much.

Went over to visit the cathedral, no wandering due to enormous city crowds too thick to push through. As to the cathedral…it was closed.  Yes, closed.  First time the we have seen one closed.  Others were there to worship but they were SOL.

Saturday 23 September. Cool,perfect start, too hot and sunny later.

Keeping, for a few days with the test of distance devices:

book- 23.8 km

Garmin 25.62

iPhone- 22.7

Android 23.0

Pretty good concordence today.  As a side testing note I carried both the Android and iPhone in my pocket today.

Better terrain today.

Mostly good walking on decent paths. Some exceptions. Above not an exception.

Lovely spider Weds in photo. May have to zoom.

An interesting sight along a path: horses eating bread that a farmer delivered. Bread, probably day old, laid out across a field.

A little further on geese honking and looking for food from QB.

Stopped at a small abby and found a typical good story. Person, pictured, bought some land and as part of the land was an abandoned church, 12th century, looted almost to the bare bones in 2009.  He decided to restore it.  Naturally found interesting art works behind the walls, etc.

I asked him if the church was deconsecrated? Well, that is a complicated matter.  The local priest will not talk to him, even after 4 years and will not approve it.  He spoke with the Archbishop who worked around the priest to get it declared a ruin.   It is not resolved and may never be.

Stopped for Pinxos in Villova, a medieval city(1184) with an old old bridge.

After crossing another, similar looking bridge of great importance, also 12th century, the Magdalena bridge we entered Pamplona again.

Right in the midst of a semi-religious festival! Like Times square in it’s heyday.

First pic is evening view from our balcony.