From Sansol to Logrona

Day 12 and 13 in Logrono - The Albergue Palacio de Sansol turned out to be an amazing place. It was a 320 year old palace lovingly restored by the current owner, José Maria. His family had owned it in the early 1900s and then sold it. Jose bought it back for €30,000 in the 1990s and more recently spent a millón euros to restore it into a really charming albergue.
The pilgrim dinner was cooked by Jose and consisted of a watery soup of what looked like celery to me - but turned out to be artichoke stems. I was among the 5% that didn’t particularly like it (it needed some masala). Luckily there was a twenty-something sitting next to me who was starving and had my share - so was not wasted. This guy is an aspiring actor from LA - so we took a selfie I can show off one day.
The next morning, yesterday, I reluctantly left Sansol - I had such a nice room, I wanted to hang out - and made my way to Viana, the halfway point. That path, all 11 kms - was a complete knee buster - there were seriously steep climbs and descents all the way to Viana. At Viana I found I had caught up with all my dinner friends who had left at 6 am because there was a bull festival happening in town and they were hanging out waiting for it. I watched the fireworks and the procession with them but didn’t wait for the bull run because of the timing. I had another 10km to get to Logrono.
Logrono is a vibrant town. One neighborhood is devoted to tapas/pinchos bars and people hang around there snacking and drinking. Nobody eats dinner till 9 or 10pm. The town has a beautiful cathedral, Santa María de Palacio, and I got a much coveted stamp in my pilgrim passport - the lady at the tourist office said that it was hard to get.
Last night, as I sat outside with a glass of red Rioja, some of my Sansol friends showed up and we ended up having more wine along with some a amazing but weird tapas. Surprisingly the 2 glasses of wine didn’t give me a headache!
I spent 2 nights in Logorno. And btw, I’ve completed a hundred miles walking the Camino….Read more