Camino de Santiago - Days 7-9

Day 7: Torres del Río - Logroño

Distance: 20.4 km(12.7 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours

Altitude: Start out at 425 m(1,394 ft.) rise up to 580 m(1,902 ft.) after leaving Torres del Río, then descend to 384 m(1,260 ft.).

     The morning we left Torres del Río, the sky was clear. One of the best parts of the Camino is that you get to see a sky full of stars every morning. We were able to take a great picture of the town's outline against the rising sun. For some reason, the walking was tough the whole day. I don't want to give the impression that this day was especially difficult but I think the 30 km we walked the day before made our bodies sorer than we realized. We also didn't fill up our water bottles before leaving so our supply was a bit low and we couldn't rehydrate. There were only two places to stop, Viana and Logroño. Until we arrived in Viana, we went up and down and up and down through fields of vineyards.

     The trail crossed the N-111 from time to time until we arrived to Viana. It was the last stop before entering the second region of the Camino, La Rioja. It looked different and the architecture of the buildings was different from most of the others we had seen thus far in Navarra. The buildings had a brown stone exterior and a cleaner feel. We stopped in the main square next to the church to have some breakfast. Even though it was Sunday, the local bakery was open and serving fresh bread. Next to the plaza is the 13th century Saint Mary's Church. As the Camino leaves the town, there is another church, Saint Peter's Church, that is in ruins but has some nice murals that have been recently discovered. You can freely enter and walk around the remains of the church.

     The next ten kilometers were very hard on our feet because we were trying to not take as many breaks. Sadly, it was actually some of the easiest walking but getting our feet accustomed to not taking so many breaks was difficult. There wasn't a lot of up and down and the trail is paved most of the way. We walked along small streams that ran between local farms and vineyards. Since it was Sunday, we passed a lot of people out having a nice walk in the pleasant weather. We could see Logroño throughout most of the walk and that helped to keep us moving. Just outside of Logroño is a nice park with a nature reserve and lots of wildlife. We would have stopped to enjoy it more but our feet and our stomachs insisted we keep moving.

     When we arrived to Logroño, it was quite a relief. It was strange to us that this 20 km day hurt so bad. We checked in to the municipal albergue. They charged 7 euros and wanted a real passport in addition to the pilgrim credential. After resting for a bit, we went to Cafe Moderno a few blocks away to have lunch as there was no stove at the albergue. Even if there had been one, none of the supermarkets were open. In Spain, nothing other than restaurants and large department stores open on Sunday. We had a delicious meal and headed back to take a nap. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town but didn't take many photos because we visited Logroño in June. You can click here to see those pictures. Logroño is the capital of Spain's best wine region and has tons of great food. In the evening, we went to Calle Laurel, the happening street where all of the best bars are located. We hopped from one place to another with our group of Spanish friends because many of them were returning home after a week of hiking. It was sad to see them go but as we would learn, that's part of the Camino. At each major city, we would lose people we'd just met and meet more the next day.

Day 8: Logroño - Nájera
Distance: 29 km(18 miles) (33 km(20.5 miles) detour through Ventosa)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours (7-8 hours detour through Ventosa)
Altitude: Start at 384 m(1,260 ft.), rise up to 630 m(2,066 ft.) a few km past the turn off to Ventosa, then descend to 491 m(1,611 ft.).

      We woke up early and left Logroño at 5:30 because we wanted to get to Nájera before the afternoon heat. Getting out of Logroño can be a bit tricky. We had to pay close attention to the arrows and backtrack from time to time. We walked through a park and out of the city on a nicely paved sidewalk. It connects a large family recreation park to the city. It was darker than usual and a bit chilly. After a few km, we came to another nature preserve and followed the trail around it to a science center for school children. The Camino continued through this area and returned to the vineyards rising higher and higher. We eventually found the highway and a long fence covered in crosses made from a variety of materials. The fence was over a km long and not one bit of it was untouched by the crosses.

      Just past the fence of crosses, we could see Navarrete in the distance. It's 12 km from Logroño and we had walked the entire way without stopping to take a break. We passed little old ladies out for their morning walk. They greeted us and bid us a great trip. We climbed the stairs up into the town and ambled through the streets to the bakery. There was a lot of construction and the main road was torn up. We found a bakery pulling fresh bread out of the oven and bought a loaf. We stopped for a half hour to rest and have some breakfast. We passed the municipal albergue along the way, it cost 5-6 euros.

      Leaving Navarrete, we passed through more vineyards and past a couple of nice bodegas. The Camino follows the highway for a while. After a few km of walking, we came to a place where you can choose to continue along the dusty, rocky path that runs parallel to the highway or detour through Ventosa. The town has obviously paid someone to put them on the trail and they have opened albergues and restaurants to accommodate pilgrims but its not part of the original trail. The large sign they've put out where the trail branches off has been decorated by disgruntled pilgrims who disagree with Ventosa being marked as part of the Camino. We ventured through it and there really isn't much to see. Most of the people who left an hour after us arrived to Nájera before we did.

      After leaving Ventosa, we walked through more vineyards and past some interesting places where people had stacked tons of rocks on top of each other. We passed lots of farmers out preparing their crops for harvest. Some of them waved and others ignored us. Out in this part of the Camino, it can get a bit hot and there isn't much shade. Be sure to have sunscreen in your bag. The only thing you hear is the same noise you hear everyday, the crunching of rock under your shoes. We found a small stone hut and stopped there to make lunch. Upon looking inside, we discovered more mementos left by previous pilgrims like notes, wine bottles, and some had even painted the stones.

 

     We arrived to Nájera around 1:30. We had to walk through the entire town and almost out again before finding the municipal albergue. The price was a donation. It's one of a few albergues that run completely off of donations and volunteers. The guy who checked us in bid us a great journey the next morning at 6:30 when we left. The people were incredible. The room where we slept had 50 or so bunk beds. It sounds like the perfect chance for people to take advantage and nick your stuff but no one ever touched our things. We made it a habit to always carry the few valuables we had with us. They had a nice kitchen so we cooked ourselves some pasta for dinner. One of our Spanish friends told us the restaurant El Buen Yantar had excellent food. The town is nice and has an interesting rock formation set behind it. We spent the afternoon wandering around the old streets and relaxing down by the river. One guy told us he put on his sandals and walked out and stood in the water to relax his feet. We watched a Spanish family while away the afternoon chatting and snacking. As we settled for the evening, we hoped that we wouldn't have to climb the tall rock formation behind the town to begin our next day.

 

Day 9: Nájera - Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Distance: 21.2 km(13.2 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5 - 6 hours

Altitude: Start at 491 m(1,611 ft.) and rise up to 590 m(1,935 ft.), descend back to 491 m(1,611 ft.), rise up to 750 m(2,460 ft.) and end at 641 m(2,103 ft.).

      We left Nájera around 6:30. It wasn't too cold and most of the volunteer staff woke up to let us out and wish us good luck. We walked back through the town and started ascending up towards the huge rock formation behind it. We went up, up, up 100 m to the top. There were large groups of people trying to walk together. At the top, we found more vineyards and watched a beautiful sunrise. We usually ate a small snack in the morning consisting of an energy bar called Clif bars. By day 9, we'd had our fill of them so we started to buy fruit to have for breakfast. After our walk up and down to get out of Nájera, the Camino is pretty level for the next 5 km to Azofra. The only people in the streets there were fellow pilgrims. It's a small town with a large albergue of 100 places next to the Parochial Church. The trail continues on out of town and through the golden hay fields and vineyards. As we got closer to Castilla y León, the vineyards became more sparse and the golden fields more frequent.

     Here at this watering hole along the trail, we found a monument to someone who'd died and walked the Camino. It was the third or fourth one we'd seen so far and wouldn't be the last. The warning sign was behind a bush next to the monument and fountain.

      Just outside of Cirueña was a posh golf club and rows of cookie cutter houses. We were tired from reaching the highest point of the day and stopped in town to rest. Like every town along the Camino, there were several bars, cafes, and a rest area with picnic tables and a water fountain. They also had a large pilgrim sculpture like many of the other towns. From Cirueña, it was another 6 km to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

      Santo Domingo is named for Domingo García, a man who set up a hermitage in the current town as a refuge for passing pilgrims. The story of his inspiration is that he was denied entry into the hermitages in Valvanera and San Millán de la Cogolla. King Alfonso VI of León helped him as he saw the development of the Camino was good for his kingdom. The church there houses his remains and he has been attributed with curing a demon possessed French pilgrim after he visited the tomb and also a German pilgrim who was suffering from an eye disorder and regained all of his vision upon visiting the tomb. The town is also famous for the story of the rooster that sang after being cooked and put on a plate. The miracle of the singing rooster saved the life of another German pilgrim who rejected a local girl's declaration of love for him. Heartbroken by his rejection, she accused him of stealing her jar of silver. The miracle of the singing rooster is attributed to Saint Domingo and interpreted as the Saint intervening to save the young man's life. The church charges 3 euros to get in and see the depiction of the story and the relief of the Saint.

     Below is a picture of the city walls built by one of the kings to protect the city in the 14th century. We wandered around the town for a bit after getting settled in and cleaned up. It was a nice town and has a local tourism office with a map and a great exhibition of the history of the Camino de Santiago.

      The town hall is on the Plaza de España and was built on top of part of the medieval city walls. There was a good restaurant called Casa Madariaga in the square that the albergue recommended for dinner. We decided to cook at the albergue because they had an excellent kitchen and the town has actual supermarkets so we could buy real food to cook. If you prefer to cook instead of eating out every meal, you must take advantage of the towns that have actual supermarkets. As we learned, not everywhere has a supermarket but merely a cooler in a bar with a handful of items and this qualifies for the classification status of having a market. There were two main albergues in Santo Domingo, one was part of a monastery and has around 30 beds and the other was the municipal one with over 220 beds. They were both donation based albergues and some of the best on the entire Camino. The municipal even had a separate room for snorers as you can see from the sign. While we didn't suffer from snoring that night, we did have a guy wake us up with night terrors and screaming in French.

Share

Camino de Santiago - Days 4-6

Day 4: Cizur Menor - Puente La Reina

Distance: 20.4 km(12.7 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours

Altitude: Start at 460 m(1,510 ft.), rise to 780 m(2,560 ft.) at Alto de Perdón, and end at 345 m(1,132 ft.).

     We left Cizur Menor at 6:30 a.m. and headed towards Puente La Reina. We learned a valuable lesson that night. Earplugs are a great investment. Leaving Cizur Menor, we passed through lots of sunflower fields. A lot of people had stopped and picked out shapes like faces or words in the flowers. We ascended up to Zariquiegui. It was just far enough away so that when we arrived, the small shops were open for a bite to eat or something cold to drink. We followed the trail up the highest point of the day at Alto de Perdón. There was nothing there except a large sculpture of pilgrims and a guy selling snacks and drinks out of a truck. The view was beautiful of all of the golden fields of Navarra. 

     The descent from Alto de Perdón was a bit rough. The rocks were large and going down was quite steep. It eventually leveled off into rolling hills going up and down and passed through the towns of Uterga, Muruzabal, and Obanos. There were medieval churches and nice plazas in Obanos. We walked through the woods and along the highway a few more km to Puente La Reina. There were several private albergues there, the one just beyond the famous medieval bridge even had a pool. The local monastery, Reparadores(built in the 12th century) was 4 euros and the privates were 8 euros. We stayed at the monastery. The town had a nice supermarket and the albergue had a good kitchen. There are some good restaurants in town with the Pilgrim Special. The highlight of the town was the medieval bridge on the westside of town. It was built in the 13th century and offers a great place to relax by the river with lots of shade.

     At the end of each day, a warm foot soak is always welcome. We used warm water and soap. Another great recipe is to use epsom salts and vinegar. Taking care of your feet is always priority number 1.

Day 5: Puente La Reina - Estella
Distance: 22.4 km(13.9 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 350 m(1,148 ft.) and rise up to 470 m(1,541 ft.) at Cirauqui and end at 430m (1,410 ft.).

     We left at 6:10 from Puente La Reina. The albergue there was one of the few that allow dogs. We saw a couple sleeping with theirs outside. Even though it was dark out, the bright white dirt and rocks made it easy to follow the Camino. We walked for a bit on level ground then ascended sharply up to the highway. The clouds were a bit ominous and threatened rain. We passed through Manerua, a small town that was still asleep. Just 3 km beyond that, we arrived to Cirauqui. The albergues there cost around 8-10 euros. As you can see from the picture above, there isn't a house out of place in this town on a hill. There is a nice bakery at the entrance to the town. If it's early, stop there as there aren't any others. The croissants we ate were fresh and still warm.

     A km outside of Cirauqui, it started to rain a bit so we pulled out our rain jackets and wrapped ourselves and our bags. A lot of people had huge ponchos to cover themselves and their bags. They are a great investment but that day was the only we encountered rain while walking so they would have been extra weight. The gamble is yours to make. We waited a bit in a tunnel under the highway for the rain to subside before walking on up to Lorca. If it's really nasty, you can just take the paved road up to Lorca by the tunnel instead of following the muddy trail. Lorca had a handful of albergues. We stopped in one to warm up and have coffee. 

     From Lorca, we walked on through more golden fields of hay and grain. The rainy clouds dissipated and we were able to enjoy a beautiful day. The next town we came to was Villatuerta. There's a river, which isn't even quite a stream, at the entrance to the town. We stopped there to rest our feet and fill our empty stomachs with a sandwich. The walk through the town is all uphill. Most of the houses and buildings are nice and have a sleek stone look.

     From Villatuerta, our next stop was Estella, our stopping point for the day. The town was beautiful and quite old. Founded in 1090, it is one of the bigger towns along the Camino de Santiago in the Navarra region. There were several albergues in the city. One is based on a donation and the municipal one is 6 euros, had a decent kitchen for cooking, and all the flies you could ever want. The best thing to do in Estella is go for a nice stroll after showering and washing clothes at the albergue. We visited the grocery store and stocked up on some cold cuts for sandwiches and something to cook for dinner. We joined some Spanish friends we'd met the first few days and had a drink and lunch at a restaurant called La Casa Nova. We recommend the stuffed red peppers, tuna steak, and chickpeas. We spent the afternoon answering questions of our time in Spain and strolling around and enjoying the town.

Day 6: Estella - Torres del Rio 

Distance: 29.5 km(18 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 7 - 8 hours

Altitude: Start out at 425 m(1,394 ft.), rise up to 605 m(1,985 ft.) and descend to 440 m(1,444 ft.).

      As became customary in Navarra, we awoke early to face a steep climb. We left Estella around 6:30 and walked through the town and its suburb of Ayegui. There are albergues there as well but if you really want to visit the towns on the trail, its a better option to stay in Estella. The trail markings aren't very easy to find early in the morning. We followed the road when we left Ayegui instead of turning left and following the trail past the Monastery. It's an impressive building and there's a wine bodega(Bodega Irache) near it with a fountain of wine for pilgrims. The trail continues through the golden hay fields of Spain and the morning light creates an incredibly golden light on them. Just outside Ayegui is a camp ground where you can pitch your tent for 10 euros. Some smarter pilgrims pitched theirs across the road from it for free.

      We went up, up, up towards Villamayor de Monjardin. We passed through the small town of Azqueta. Most of the town was still asleep. Many of the pilgrims stopped at the local parish to collect a stamp in their credencial. There are many people who collect lots of stamps but in order to do this, you must buy a big book or you will have to buy two or three of the smaller ones. We only used one and only collected stamps at the albergues and major Cathedrals in Burgos, León, and Astorga. We ascended on up to Villamayor and stopped there to have a coffee and a snack. The town doesn't have a whole lot to offer other than over priced breakfast food. There are a couple of albergues there. Leaving Villamayor, we descended back down towards Los Arcos over the next 12 km. The terrain is rocky and beautiful. At times, all we could hear was the crackling of the golden wheat fields. We passed from one to another and occasionally, we passed by vineyards and their nearly ready to be harvested grapes.

     Los Arcos was the recommended stopping point by the office of the Friends of the Camino in Saint Jean. It's 21 km from Estella. We arrived there around 12:15 and felt it was too early to stop. The heat wasn't bad and we wanted to spend Sunday in Logroño. We decided to stop and rest for an hour and a half. We checked out the albergue situation there during our break. There were several private ones for around 8 euros and a municipal one for 5.50 euros. It had wireless internet. There were some decent markets there and it seemed to be a good place to stop. The town wasn't as charming as some of the others and seemed to be dirtier. We stopped at the main square next to the cathedral and watched pilgrims stream through as we rested and ate a sandwich. Most were headed to the municipal albergue just outside the old part of town. Next to it was an interesting museum that had a nice lawn to rest on and old sculptures decorating it.

     We left Los Arcos around 1:45 and headed on to Torres del Río. It was only 8 km from Los Arcos and the nice weather made our walk more enjoyable. The nice thing about walking after 2 o'clock is that you pretty much have the whole camino to yourself. We saw one other person out walking and one guy out hunting in the fields with his dogs. The fields crackled the entire walk. Torres del Río sits across the river from Sansol. Both were on the high points of hills and we had to walk down and cross the river and walk back up into Torres del Río. There wasn't much to the town. There were two private albergues, both charging 7 euros. We chose Casa Mariela. There was a hotel in town with a pool and they charged 10 euros. Cooking was out of the question so we made more sandwiches. There was one small shop in town and it looked like a war storage closet set up with tons of rations. The old couple that run it are most agreeable and have mastered the art of sign language of pointing instead of learning another language. An interesting monument in Torres del Río is the octagonal Templar Church. They charged 1 euro to go in but we poked our head in for a quick gander for free. It's rumored to be stylized just like the one in Jerusalem. The last picture is something that is also quite standard on the Camino de Santiago, the boot rack. Here, most albergues request you leave your dirty, dusty shoes so as to not track all through the rooms and make their cleaning process more difficult.

Share