Day Eight: Los Arcos a Logrono

So, the day really started at 5.00 - there was a choir of snores throughout the night. I really am so surprised people can snore so intensely, I was glad to get out into the fresh air.

I went out for dinner yesterday with a small group from the hostel. By the time I got up, most of them had already started the day. Ouch, did my body hurt today. I felt a twinge in my hip all the way down to my right foot as I scrambled out of the top bunk. I now understand why they say sorry when there are only top bunks left!

A chorus of snores became a chorus of birds as I left at dawn this morning, making my way 6km to the first town. This is my favourite time of the day, and I resolve to try and leave early so I can enjoy it the most. Maybe this is easier said than done?

Coffee number one and keep going. Another 10k to a second town called Viana. I see a lot of my fellow pilgrims so I stop for coffee 2. My pace is faster than most, so I stride on into the heat of the day.

The final 10k I walk alone. I’m in La Rioja now and there are fields of grapes on either side. The landscape has flattened out, but the roads are hardened clay and they are tough on my feet!

Walking alone into the city of Logrono I pass many pilgrims, and I arrive at the outskirts of town around 1. I covered 27km today. I arrive tired and feeling introverted. I set myself up in the hostel with the usual shower and laundry. I eat a sandwich of chorizo and bread in the patio. I venture in to the town.

Logrono is a metropolitan centre, but very historic. I wander around the plaza central and visit the gilded cathedral. It is very busy everywhere, there are people ‘paseando’. It is still too early for me to find a bookstore, which was my aim. Things here close for hours over lunch time. Even if it is 4!

There is street art everywhere. It’s so beautiful mixed in with the old buildings. After about an hour or so of walking around I find a tired Hodges, and his pilgrim family, they have struggled to find somewhere to sleep and they are on the floor in the cathedral! I make plans to meet them for dinner at the famous Calle Laurel.

I then run into Carlos. It is his last day on the Camino, so we make plans too. I am sad that he will be ending the journey there, I will likely not see him again! A strange feeling when you have shared the journey so far.

I am grateful for a cold beer and for some company in the form of Hodges and Becky and Nico (much nicer today!) and Lorenzo - who has found a pintxo bar with a famous garlic mushroom.

We enjoy a beer, and then a famous Rioja wine and some Manchego cheese. The streets are popping with people! There are parties everywhere. The waiter mentions that this is an average Saturday night. It reminds me of London. I part ways with Becky and her crew to meet Carlos and Carlos at another bar. They show me two new tapas, and we share some more wine! It is now so busy on the narrow street you have to push past people to get though. I eat a pigs ear tapa, on a little bun. And more Rioja! I say goodbye to Carlos and he jokes that I owe him a beer. Come visit me in Madrid he says, and we part ways.

A little hazy I find my way back to the Albergue. I have walked 50,000 steps my watch tells me.

Tomorrow I have another 28k to go!Read more