Blogs from La Rioja, Spain, Europe

We left the municipal albergue at about 6am, heading towards Ciruena or Cirinuela, depending on where you looked. After about 2 hours of walking, we arrived at Cirinuela, a rather large and largely unused golf course and apartment building group. It seemed like a ghost town, but we saw that at least some of the apartments were occupied. Right next to it is the town of Ciruena, a rather small town. After passing through the apartment complex, we came to a bar, Bar Jacobeo, where we stopped for breakfast. After our breakfast, we walked only for less than half an hour before we spotted Santo Domingo de la Calzada, although it was quite a ways still. There was a nice little rest area not too far out of town, but we kept on walking. We reached ... read more

We got up and on our way just before 7am. Just over half an hour later, we passed the Ermita de la Virgen, a pretty nice rest stop, but we didn't stop. Another half an hour and we passed into the communidad of Los Riojas, famous for their grapes and wine. We walked just under an hour before we entered Logrono. Logrono is a pretty big town, and has the factories and plants to prove it. Just before entering, we saw a cute little house the offered water and a stamp, but we passed it up. We wound our way through Logrono to the main cathedral, then found a good place for breakfast. I don't remember the name, but we had coffee and sweets. After our breakfast, we headed out of Logrono, but it took a ... read more

Early morning call for Mr. Sherry. If anyone is wondering what goes on on the Camino in the middle of the night, with strangers of all ages, nationalities, genders, and desires, I can only relate my experience. At 3.37am this morning I received a call from the aged care facility in Australia where my mother lives, to advise me of a slight change in her medications. There’s no need for permission, it was just to let me know. So, at that time in an albergue, there is about 20 exhausted people, all in close proximity, snoring and sleeping in the hope to be energetic enough to walk the route the next day. Then came the shrill noise from under my pillow. Drowsy and confused, I grabbed the phone from under my pillow, answered it, said nothing, ... read more

Took advantage of the later than usual checkout time this morning and had breakfast back at Bar Swing (didn't really want to leave this lovely hotel). Then had a drive around San Sebastian trying to get to the top of Mt Urgull (view to the right!), but discovered the road only goes around the base. Still, interesting drive through the narrow one way streets in lots of traffic! One thing we learnt while we were here is that San Sebastian is not a little beachside resort town, but a big (population, not area) busy city that has a beach. Then we were on our way to Calahorra. A 2(ish) hour drive from San Sebastian. Drove through the mountains (there seem to be lots of them here!), and past lots of small towns, most with churches on ... read more

We left the albergue at 6:30, heading to Azofra for our breakfast stop. The trail was fairly flat once got out of town, plus it was fairly dark most of the 5 kilometers or so. We stopped at the Bar El Descanso de Peregrinos for our usual breakfast. Just outside of town we passed a pilgrim's monument then walked another 7 kilometers, passing a golf course a bunch of apartments and duplexes that looked pretty empty, with a lot of for sale signs. Just passed the golf course we finally found a bar for our next break, called Bar Jacobeo. The last 7 kilometers or so was pretty long, with some steep ups and downs. Finally spotting Santo Domingo de Calzadas, our destination for today, put a little zip in our stride, but only a little. ... read more