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Published: October 3rd 2015
Buen Camino graffitti
At the end of an underpass this greeting on the concrete wall31 August 2015, Monday, stage 8
GPS:
31 August, Monday. Viana to Navarette. Left at 0737, arrived 1445, GPS 14.58 miles 5 hour 21 minutes walking.
Fitbit: Stairs 70 Steps 31,981 Miles 13.97. Stay at Palacio de Pulgadas one of the group Posadas del Camino.
Leave at 7:37 we almost miss breakfast as there is no one at the desk and no breakfast activity in the bar. However, a lone woman behind the bar motions to a room down from the bar and it is as if you stepped through the closet and into Narnia.
There are delicious fried eggs, bacon, the most lovely chocolate croissants, juice and fruits of many kinds, yoghurt, cheeses and hard sausages.
Fueled, we head out for Navarette. We keep watch on the sky as the weather forecast has been for showers or heavy thunderstorms at 9, 12 and 3. "The natural pathways now turn to the rich red clay soil of La Rioja-beautiful in the sun and a nightmare in the wet as it clings to footwear like a leech."
We are stepping smartly along when we come up to an isolated corner in the fields. A young
A snails pace
Did we say we are keeping up with the company on the Camino? Just about our pace! girl holds up a luscious cluster of grapes. Harlan asks, "desayuna?" and she offers some to us. Now, I must admit that I have had some problems taking grapes from vineyards to supplement my daily fruit intake. I remember when our guide, Claus, the bike sweep for our bike barge trip in Germany, was horrified when several in our group had several grapes from a vineyard along the way. We then all had a lecture on how we were stealing the farmer's income. Here, in Spain, pilgrims are helping themselves to grapes right and left--what a difference. I remember what Susan, the elementary principal in Santa Cruz, Bolivia once said. She explained that if one was careless and left a purse or other valuable unattended, it was your fault if it was stolen. She would explain that a local thief would have no qualms about taking it as their belief was that the good Lord was taking care of them that day as He had placed that valuable gift right in front of them for the taking---what a providential day for them!!!
So we welcome the gift of grapes from Danielle and the three of us walk along. She
At the border entering La Rioja, welcome lady.
A two generation tradition, the niece of Felisa now greets pilgrims from her kiosk as you come down the Camino into Logrono. She is a fixture mentioned in every book and blog on the Camino is Brazilian and a metallurgical engineer - an employee of Ford in Brazil. She is taking a sabbatical after two years of fourteen hour days. She spent six months traveling in the United States, is doing El Camino, visiting friends in Germany and some Spanish Mediterranean islands. This is where one pilgrim is trying to decide what the next stage in life will be. And, yes, her parents worry about her and thinks she should return home, buy and apartment, and settle down! So, I tell her I am going to be her surrogate mother for a minute and ask if she has heard that they are now recommending that singles, particularly women, travel in groups in certain area of the Camino because of harassment and the disappearance of a female American pilgrim this past April. She tells us that, already, she has experienced what she regards as harassment or stalking from a man on a bike who keeps popping up on different days at different places and asking personal questions like where is she sleeping. She has also experienced an 'exhibitionist' using her words. Since she needs new hiking boots in Logrono, she is also going to report the
The bull on the hill
Coming into town we see this bull metal statue on the hill. Reminds us of our trip from Picos Europas to Madrid when we saw these just out of Leon man, who keeps surfacing wherever she is, to the police in Logrono. She is a very up-beat individual and fun to travel with for awhile.
We pass by Ermita de la Trinidad de Cuevas and move to the interesting Lagunas de Las Canas with the Cantabrian Hills in the background. Birds are plentiful in the area and we wish we had Inigo with his avian knowledge. By the way, we have a message from him saying they did not release the little ouletillo as the center decided to give him a few more days to develop his wing feathers. He was released today instead of last Thursday.
La Rioja-at last! Near the border we stop at the welcome booth of Felisa. We meet the niece of the original Felisa who stamps our Pilgrims credential. She is carrying on the task of a legendary gatekeeper of the camino. I want a picture of the two of us so we buy a scallop shell. I already have in my mind the recipient, some friends whose son is experiencing medical issues.
We continue to see many vineyards, olive and almond trees, some along the path or roadside and others in
Cathedral tower of Logrono
As seen from the bridge over the river Ebro coming into Logrono cultivated fields. The walnut trees are mostly along the camino and roads. Grasshoppers, snails, salamanders, and lizards accompany the few butterflies and bumblebees in the clover and alfalfa blooms. The soil is extremely rocky like the olive growing region in the heel of the boot of Italy.
By my count, on longer straight stretches of the camino, we can see about 20 pilgrims per kilometer. So while we have many minutes walking with no other pilgrims all the cafés have many pilgrims enjoying coffee, bocadillos (sandwiches), pastry and the welcome aseo, bano, or servicio (toilet).
We find our way through the booming town of Logrono, capital of La Rioja. Next to the big iglesia is a plaza laid out with a huge black and white, checked pattern, board game; only the squares show two dimensional scenes from the Camino. On one square is the famous bridge in Punta de la Reina, another has the cathedral in Santiago, there are chickens alluding to the miracle of the young man and the roasted chickens. Huge dice are placed around the 'game board.' Variations of this game would be played by pilgrims along their long journey.
We are nearing the
The camino through the vineyards
A nice day for a walk to Navarette we meet a man and his donkey. reservoir on the western side of this large city when who should pop over the hill. It is Cam and Marie from Calgary. We have been meeting them frequently along the way. So we enjoy their company for a distance. Marie and I are ahead of the guys when a man, who is working with a piece of machinery in a grape field, yells over and wants to know if we are pilgrims. At this point we consider this a silly question as we certainly don't look as if we are out for a Sunday stroll! We reply in the affirmative and he motions us to wait, hops down from his piece of machinery and we wait. Pretty soon he comes out with these beautiful clusters of grapes that he passes around to the four of us, as the guys have now joined us. He speaks very broken English and our Spanish is also pretty broken, but we chatter away and we do get one question answered. We have noticed that some vineyards are traditional in that the grapes are, more or less, espaliered but other fields have the grape plants stuck in the ground individually. We think we understand
Karen and our Brazilian friend Danielle
We met Danielle offering us some grapes from a vineyard we had passed through about 2 kilometers out of Viana. him correctly when he says the vines that are espaliered can be picked by machine and the grapes planted individually must be picked by hand. These vineyards are run by a cooperative.
The four of us continue on our way until we reach a big hill which must be conquered before our day ends so we urge them to move ahead, which they do. Over the top of the hill we can see Navarette but just do not seem to be gaining ground but the dark sky does! We look over to the right and a storm is certainly in progress and moving our way.
We trudge up the hill, into town, found our hotel, enter the room and the winds arrive. There is a huge plaza across the street, level with our second story room and we hear glasses, that have been left on tables, hit and shatter on the river rock floor of the plaza. The wind is bending trees on the plaza and the noise is monumental. I have my afternoon siesta while it rages.
Upon awaking all is calm and fresh outside. We venture out and find some pilgrims on the plaza that
The Camino Game on the square in Logrono
Karen checking out the pictures on the squares in the game. is just back of the municipal albergue. An albergue has been, traditionally, a place for a pilgrim to rest their head at a rock bottom price. They are usually run by a local government or religious order. They can be very spartan, or, as is the case for this one, remodeled and fashioned with the unique needs of the pilgrim in mind. As we chat more people join the group and we meet some new pilgrims and find out the latest news from ones we have met before. That is mainly who they have met today that we might know and what the latest problem with feet or boots might be! Here we met Richard and Virginia from San Diego and Oscar and Jonathan from England but Oscar has a story we will learn later.
We go off down the street to a restaurant to check their Pilgrim's menu but are not impressed. We step inside the big church on the way back up the square. Mass is being given so we do not get a clear view of the inside but as one Spaniard put it later that evening, "Yes, it has a lot of bling-bling!
We
The Way, waymarkers
Another of the variety of indicators along the Camino.
The different provinces seem to want to have their unique symbols or method of markings. return to the plaza but most of the crowd has scattered so we decide to have a Pilgrim's meal inside the cafe. This dinner has to be one of the big highlights so far of our trip! We are placed in a little nook with four tables, all very cozy. Antonio, the proprietor, comes with the menu of the day. He immediately loved me because I go for the house special-red pimento peppers, stuffed with ground up cod and cheese, all covered with squid sauce. But first we have the house special soup of spinach and garbanzo beans served in a big crock and you ladle out your own soup. The ensalada mixto is superb and besides the usual there are slivers of crisp green apple for an extra crunch. Meanwhile, delicious bread and a bottle of La Rioja wine has been planted on the table. About this time Cam and Marie from Canada pop up and we try to give them our wine. They say that they will have plenty for them but Antonio will have none of that plan! Pilgrim's meal in his restaurant includes a bottle of La Rioja and you are going to have it! I
Karen, Cam and Marie
We met these Calgaray Canada friends and spent several days walking together. top off the meal with another house special-almost a egg custard with a topping of real, real whipped cream-nothing out of a pressured can. And then to top it off there is a glaze of liquid honey on top. This is in a cute little brown, rustic pot. Remember the mention of red clay? Navarette has traditionally been a town of pottery and now ceramics. Harlan had bread and soup from the menu.
So, in addition to Cam and Marie, Oscar and Jonathan have joined us. Jonathan is from London. Very staid in appearance he has a wicked dry humor. Outside the group had tried to guess where Oscar was from as he has a very unusual accent--no one got it--Oscar is from Barcelona. He is rather a dramatic young man and enjoys telling us where we should go during our September visit to Barcelona for La Merce'. As they depart, a young couple arrive to take their place. He is from London and they have been in Madrid one week, she is from Australia. He has just started a business degree program and is excited about that. We try and convince them they can do the camino in
A farmer goes into the vineyard to offer a bunch of grapes
We are in La Rioja wine country and they are proud of it. Most are owned by the provincial government according this this man. a year by knocking off sections on week-ends. They will think about it-we leave them with our half a bottle of red wine and they are delighted and we will not have headaches in the morning :>😉
A perfect ending to a most wonderful day filled with serendipity! And staying dry!
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Pamela
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Wonderful journey??❤️? Port Lincoln Love xx