Blogs from La Rioja, Spain, Europe - page 13

Watching the Weather After the brilliant weather yesterday, getting from Logrono to Najera became a real problem almost from the start. I started out in a fleece, but it began to drizzle so I changed it for my rain jacket. An hour later, I was feeling quite miserable with cold, and clearly not maintaining my body temperature very well. So time for another change and a bite to eat. The fleece went back on top, storm pants and I replaced my walking cutoff gloves with both liner and outer gloves. Other than removing the outer gloves later in the morning, I was like this until lunchtime. Even then, only the storm pants came off. This used all the classic layers that I have, so it will be interesting to see how I will cope if I ... read more

Inmiddels al weer de zesde week van mijn verblijf. De afgelopen weken heb ik weer leuke dingen meegemaakt. Om maar weer te beginnen met het technische deel: vorige week hebben we de evolutie gestart. De batch hebben we ook gelijk in de mini-fermentortjes gedaan die we de week daarvoor hebben getest. Het zijn twee 50 ml erlenmeyers met drie naalden in een luchtdichte dop, een voor de feed in, een voor de out en een voor de CO2 die de gist produceert. De in en out zijn verbonden met een pomp die met een bepaalde snelheid respectievelijk eten in pompt en met dezelfde snelheid medium afneemt. De erlenmeyers worden geroerd met een magnetische roerder. (CSTR). De out wordt tegelijkertijd ook gebruikt om samples mee te nemen. We hebben aardig wat dingen moeten uitproberen, maar nu werkt ... read more

The electronic beeping of alarms stirs me from a restless sleep. I try to bury my head under the pillow but the sound of rustling plastic bags penetrates even the stiff foam. I don’t need to check the time; after a few days on this holy path I’ve learnt that the beeping begins at 5am. I reach down through the darkness and fumble for my ear plugs which are somewhere in a side pocket of my rucksack, somewhere under the creaking metal bunk bed. I’m aided by the regular beams of head torches swinging around the room like search lights. I hate the feeling of the fluorescent yellow rubbery stubs in my earholes so rather than drifting off to sleep I lay cursing these early risers. Within half an hour I’ve admitted defeat and join the ... read more

Definitely a "highlight reel" day. We toured the Guggenheim Museum at 10, but did not tarry long. I have trouble finding much interest for collections of airplane ashtrays linked by a loosely arranged keychain. We then drove up into the mountains. We are by now well accustomed to using our GPS to find our way. But the GPS requires being able to locate your destination. Today, we were not only off the beaten path, but the beaten path could not even be seen from our vantage point in the mountains. Our goal was Asador Etxebarri, a restaurant known to "foodies" but otherwise obscure. It is listed several places as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, and richly deserves that ranking. We arrived early, mostly because our tour of th Guggenheim Museum was shorter ... read more

I have been walking for several days since I last wrote. Have enjoyed wonderful mild weather and met so many lovely people along the the trail as well as so many helpfull and gentle locals from people stopping to chat from the fiels to any one you for assistance or directions. A highlight was meeting Felicias Daughter Maria, a lady who welcomed pilgrims for over 20 years just before entering entering Logroño and now since she died her daughter does the deed and supplies coffee and toas plus a stamp on your credential for a donation. Her house is quaint and colourfull with lots of flowers. I soaked my aching feet in a water fountain within our albergue patio and met by chance a few walking members from the Badajoz club I walked with back in ... read more