Logroño to Ventos

Up at 6:30, packing up in the mostly dark. Out the door at 7:30. It took a while to get out of the fairly large-sized city of Logroño. We walked for over an hour to get all the way out. Stopped for coffee break on the outskirts. The Camino was well marked in the city, which I understand is not the case in some places. By well marked, I mean wherever a course change is needed there is a sign with an arrow, or a clamshell plaque (symbol of St James & the Camino) is cast into the sidewalk, or in many more cases, there is simply a yellow (the official Camino color) arrow spray painted on the sidewalk, wall, or street sign pole. Once out of the city, the path separated from the highways and we took off through the countryside. Our relief was huge as we began scaling the mighty 20 ft high 8% grades of the Camino Frances. Stopped frequently to stretch out the hip I’ve been protecting, and to finish off the last of the emergency supplies Debbie sent with me. The emergency being that there was no place to get breakfast until we got to Navarrete, around noon.

It’s really different on the Frances route. A pretty fair number of the local people you pass greet you with a smile and a “Buen Camino”. The Basque people are nice, but based on our limited time on the Del Norte route they are just not as into the Camino. An example, when we were coming into Navarrete, and old(er than us) man handed Dale some of the mint he had just picked from his garden with some “Buen Caminos” and I think blessings on us both. Then seeing that I didn’t; have any, he led us aside to the mint plant and made sure I had some also! I tucked it into my backpack strap and smelled mint for the rest of the day.

Tired but still moving well, we made it to Ventos around 2:30, which was beer-thirty Camino time. We stopped at the first place and sipped a cold one, glad we stared out with just 9 miles the first day. Had a little difficulty finding the albergue because of bad address on a website, but arrived nonetheless. It is a very nice albergue. Tile floors, a courtyard with fountain, and just nice and clean. After a shower we went out for dinner to the “Bar Virgen Blanco” or “White Virgin Bar”. I mean we just had to. It turned out to be a great entire family run restaurant with lots of laughter and good vibes. Had a great salad and a pretty good paella which we shared with a bottle of good local Tempranillo. We are definitely in Rioja wine country now. Most of the day we were walking through vineyards. They mostly prune to head-style, and low to the ground, which is a lot different than Walla Walla vineyards. Some pictures below.

Time to get some sleep. Doing another 9ish miles tomorrow to the town of Azofra.
Buen Camino,
PhilLes mer