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.
No comments:
Post a Comment