Oh Fabuloso!!

Paula and I both had a rough night last night. This lovely apartment was perfect except for one thing. They used highly fragrance laundry detergent on the sheets and towels, and they mopped the floor with Fabuloso.  

So we took all the sheets off the beds and all the towels out of the bathrooms, and put them all in one room and closed the door. I turned the heat up high and opened both doors to the kitchen and living room and aired it out. I ended up sleeping on the leather couch in the living room. Finally got to sleep about 11:15.  We both woke up this morning with swollen eyes and a headache. 

We're moving a little slow this morning. I have the alarm set for 7:55 to drop off the bags and then we will head to the town bar to have a slow long breakfast before walking to Belorado.  Today will be our longest stage so far, but the weather looks beautiful after it warms up a bit.  

Right now it's 7:30 AM. The temperature is 33°.  Brrrrrr! it's supposed to hit 66 by the time we get here Belorado

It is good to see the sun!

To Grañon

Today Paula and I took a bus to Santo Domingo de la Calazada. As soon as we got off the bus, we looked for a place to eat, and we found a bakery where we tried some of the pastries. But we really didn't like them very much. One of the things I saw were ahorcaditos. 
Their preparation began in 1953 by the artisan pastry chef from Calcea, José Alberto Hernando Aliende, in the Isidro Pastry Shop, where they were created, and it is the only point of their commercialization from the first day. They will soon be spread throughout the province of La Rioja, becoming popular among pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. They take their name from a miracle attributed to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. that of the rooster and the hen.

We visited the cathedral and got to see the chickens and  the story about why they are there. it was nice to hear that they replaced these chickens about every two weeks with a new pair and these are given retirement in a nice big pen elsewhere. 

The church and museum were absolutely incredible and I took way too many photos to post, but I'll show you a few just to give you a taste

The photo above is of the crypt where there are some incredible mosaics of the life of Christ. 

The  windows in this cathedral are much more modernistic to me than windows we have seen in other cathedrals.  It was hard to get a good photo of this, but they are quite beautiful. 

A larger than life-like crucifix. 

The retablo is covered with sculptures from the life of Christ. You have to really blow it up large to see each and everyone.  This photo does not capture how gorgeous the gilding was. It almost hurt your eyes to look at it  

Veronica

The rest of the cathedral was just filled with beautiful artworks. After we left here, Paula took a walk all the way to the top of the tower. There was no way I was going to attempt that. Once she was finished, we went to a China shop so I can get a pair of gloves and we could walk to Grañon. There is a bitter wind blowing, and it is very cold right now.

We have a very nice two bedroom two bath apartment here  We are doing our laundry and Paula has taken a trip to the market to pick up some food for dinner and a bottle of wine  We're thinking to just have a late breakfast here in town tomorrow before our walk to Belorado  

 








more tomorrow, 

Annie

Back to Logroño

This was a sculpture in the churchyard that I thought was beautiful. Spain has so many wonderful sculptures.

Paula and I left Navarrette around 7:30 AM. We stopped at a cute little restaurant called Café Monkey. 

If you want something hot for breakfast, but you’re not really into coffee you can order Cola Cao. It’s pronounced “Cola Cow” and it’s very good hot chocolate. They give you a powder that you pour into some steaming hot milk. They give you a packet of sugar, but I can’t imagine using it because it’s already very sweet  

Afterwards, we headed back to Logroño on the same path we took yesterday. We passed huge groups of pilgrims, mostly Korean. There was an occasional American or Australian.  

These sun tiles seem to mark the way. 

The path was lined with Grey Leaf Cistus and Wild Roses.  The wildflowers are really beginning to bloom. Lots of poppies, some lilac, wild mustard, and thistle. 

The almond trees look like they’re going to have a really good crop for the summer pilgrims. 

Walking through the park, I saw this. Please don’t do this ladies. Please!  It’s disgusting. Just pick up after yourself like you would pick up after your dog.  

I had to stop for a few minutes and listen to a little bird singing so loudly. He was really happy that the sun was shining. I took a video, but it won’t let me post it here. Once I get home, I’ll try. 

Once we hit the city, we were hungry and found a little place for lunch. I had an ensalada mixta with tuna. Paula had a Caesar salad.  Both were 9 Euros and both were exceptionally good!  

After lunch, we walked to the train station and bought our tickets for tomorrow. We will take the train to Santo Domingo de la Calzada to see the church with the chickens in it. After doing some tourist around in that village, we will walk to Grañon. We rented an apartment there and hopefully can do some laundry tomorrow.  The next day we walked to Belorado  

This was a pair of chairs that we saw in a hair salon on the way back to our rooms tonight  The Spanish have a great sense of humor!

We stopped at a grocery store and picked up a little something for dinner. I’m just going to have half a cantaloupe and a can of tuna that I’m tired of carrying around.  I’m not really hungry now after that big salad. 

Today I walked a little farther. Over 15 K.

I’m happy

Annie

To Navarrette

The walk to Navarrette today was chilly but beautiful. If I had it to do over, I would layer better. The wind just cut right through my puffy jacket and I really needed to have an extra layer on underneath.  But otherwise, it was a gorgeous walk. My feet hurt but otherwise I just feel like I have no stamina and I’m wondering if I can really work up to those long stages in three weeks. This was only about 8 miles, but Covid really kicked my butt last year. My lungs just don’t seem to want to work and I’m wondering if it’s this long Covid will ever resolve.  We will see.

When we got into town, we looked around for a place to eat and finally found a bar/restaurant  They had an à la cart menu  So we ordered something called Black Bean Sacrament and a meat-stuffed zucchini & we shared each.   The black beans sacrament was a big pot of black beans with yummy sausage in it. The zucchini wasn’t as good to me because I really didn’t care for the seasoning, but both were good enough and we left satisfied. 

We stopped at the market to get water and dessert and then onto our lodging. We are at Albergue El Cantero and it’s quite nice  We each got a private room for €30 each. 

I’m feeling happy.

Tomorrow we walk right back to Logroño. 

More then,

Annie 

Logroño

We’ve had a nice 2 days in Logroño. Yesterday we went to the wine museum and took a long walk along the river. 

We played a bit at the Children’s Science Museum. 

I found a sporting goods store, Planet Aqua, and bought a daypack. 

We took a walk through a cemetery that has a memorial to 500 people murdered during the Spanish Civil War. 

Then we dropped off our packs, had a cool drink and found a market to buy dinner and lunch for today’s walk to Navarrette. The manager of our hotel was not very helpful in helping us when we asked where to leave our bags for transfer and we were on our way to ask at the closest albergue when Paula happened to notice bag transfer envelopes on a shelf in the lobby. We called and made arrangements for transfer tomorrow. We slept better knowing we didn’t have to carry our packs on today’s trek. 

It is 6 am and the alarm will go off soon. 

More later,

Annie