Another day walked - now in Navarrete

We have had a lovely, not too demanding walk to Navarrete this morning. I say this morning because we arrived here a bit before 11.30! It was a pleasant route, taking about an hour just to get out of Logroño, but mostly through parks - not too much of boring city outskirts. Logroño is quite large - it is the capital of the Rioja, but you don’t realise when mainly staying in the old historic centre.

We still see mountains surrounding, but there was only one gradual rise today, and many vineyards in their red earth, and always olives trees. We passed the famous bull - a huge replica that appears on the skyline (equivalent to the big banana etc maybe)....your see it for miles in every direction.

Then before we knew it, there was Navarrete on a hill in the distance. Last time we just walked straight through, though I do remember the little Plaza Mayor with its trees and water fountain, as we still had a further 17 kms to go to get to Najera. Thankfully today Navarrete was our destination, and we sat at a bar and had a fresh OJ, heaven as usual, and then went to the hotel. No one seemed to be around, and it was early, so we went off for a bit and went up a huge set of stairs to a park on the very top of the town with a 360° panoramic view....could even see the bull in the distance! We sat in the shade up there for a while, listening to a podcast of Outsiders that Amr had on his phone! Then finally went back to the hotel, rang a very loud bell, and a young, friendly, skinny girl appeared who spoke in rapid Spanish ....fortunately Amr got the gist and we got checked in and found that dinner is in the restaurant that has its entrance outside on a lower level...this town is totally on a hill and very charming.

Our room is spacious and airy. Amr couldn’t make the shower work (this is a daily IQ test - actually sometimes they are straightforward) so he had a bath....I will try my skill later. Now we are at a bar, having a bocadillo and a glass of wine to keep us going till dinner. And we found that 2 Canadian women we had talked to, but lost in the melee of Logroño, are in the same hotel and we may have dinner together tonight. Very peaceful.Read more