Another quality nights sleep. Thus far, 7 days in, we’ve had zero snoring incidents. This, as we shall see later, is a statistical anomaly.
We’re up 5:30am-ish, along with everybody else. We get packed and ready to go.
It’s a sad day as Llew has decided he needs to look after his health and return home. After a ridiculous amount of messing about with Easyjet he has a flight from Madrid to London at 9:45pm tonight. He’ll get a bus to Logrono, then another bus directly to the airport.
Us remaining three head on up the hill for the long walk to Logrono. It’s dark, but the sky is clear and the stars are out. I usually try and not use a torch, so my eyes can acclimatise and I can see as much as possible of our surroundings. Today is too dark for that, and the path has been chewed up by the storm. So we line up behind Jonathan and his epic floodlight head torch and off we go.
Through the outskirts and into the fields.
Eventually there’s enough light to see where we’re going.
The town of Sansol appears, looking like a Christmas card of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’.
I come across a fruit stand alongside the path and fill up on bananas, hard boiled eggs and march on.
Just round the corner we come across an old chap out practicing his guitar.
The voice caught singing on the soundtrack is Dianne, from Australia. As is common on the Camino you bump in to the same people over and over and Dianne and her friend are regular co-walkers. She is particularly interested in Jen’s Master thesis, ‘Finding My Feet’, for which Jen first walked the Camino in 2016. I promise to try and email Dianne a copy.
We arrive in Viana..
…and eat at at least two cafes as we slowly make it from one end to the other. The folks who run the food truck from a few days back have a cafe here, ‘Pilgrims Oasis’.
I add to my collection of murals and graffitied signage…
And we cross from Navara into La Rioja…
We arrive in Logrono!
We find our albergue – the very grand old church.
The square by the cathedral has some of the same excellent graffiti from 2017…
The camino way markers have changed. In Logrono we have these embedded in the pavement:
Now, this is a donativo. These are the oldest and ‘purest’ albergues. They are run by volunteers from all over the world and are free. You get a bed, a shower, a meal and you can pay nothing. Proper hospitality. Here’s the box in which you can place your donation. And this honest Scotsman put in a sizeable sum.
The donation part got a mention – once – in the introduction to the albergue; in there, along with the showers and laundry.
The is old-school albergue-ing. The accomodation is, ahem, basic. Mats on the floor in a big room.
We unpack our stuff and do the washing. I take a wander round the very pleasant centre of Logrono. Then back for the pilgrim mass at 7:30.
Still got no idea what’s going on, but it’s pleasant to be here.
Back to the hostel for the communal dinner.
Stomachs full we go through a secret passage:
A short non-sectarian, non-denominational ‘service’ is held. A kind American lady gave me a copy of the recording she made.
(I can’t upload this file at the moment, I’ll do it when I get back…)
And then a hospitalero played us out…
Best day so far. Many thanks to the volunteers who make it happen. Camino-spirit abounds…
Day 7: Stats
Los Arcos to Logrono
- Steps: 41,378
- Distance covered: 32.9 km
- Apple Watch stats
- 61 ‘Flights Climbed’