[Day 7 PS]:
What I didn’t want to say about Logrono yesterday was about the last 5k leading up to it. It was an unwelcoming industrial area with high fences and trucks coming and going. 5k with no shade and no rest areas. I was a bit leery that the rest of the trip would be strictly industrial. No need to be concerned…
Day 8
The exit side of Logrono poured us back out into wild flowers and vineyards. There were even a couple lakes and parks. Had wildlife sightings including a family of swans
and a little red squirrel who I had trouble convincing that I didn’t have any treats for him.
I tagged up with some friends and walked with them on and off today. Kim (Belfast), Peter (New Zealand) , Gary (Scottish but lives in Belfast):
Also walked with Enzo (Italy), Nick (retiree from Australia), David (student from Dublin) Vanessa (student from Kansas), and several other folks. It’s good to be alone but it’s also good to have company. I still keep my own pace so I’m either eventually behind or in front of folks. There’s no obligation to stay at the same pace. Was especially nice to have company off and on today because the route was almost 30k.
Someone asked me about stamps in my pilgrims passport. For the first 400 miles I want to get at least one per day and sometimes more. As I approach Santiago I’ll get a couple per day. This gentleman has been a long time pilgrim and now has a stall where he provides stamps to pilgrims. He gratefully collects donations, which seemed like a fair trade for a welcome orange and a stamp.
As we approached our final destination this stone shelter stood guard on the hill.
The albergue this evening is just off the river. It doesn’t serve any dinner or breakfast so I headed out for a pilgrim’s meal and an orange to start the day.