Camino 2013

Charlie: We decided to stay in hotels on our Camino rather than the albergues. We get less interaction with other pilgrims and that is a downside but we like to spread out and have some privacy.

Many albergues have a few private rooms and we have stayed in those twice so far. They are pretty much like inexpensive hotel rooms. You might think that since there are only a few of these that they would fill up quickly but that does not seem to be the case. Of course nothing is too full this time of year.

It seems almost all pilgrims stay in the albergues, even the older ones. That is good for us since the hotels are never full. When I was young I would have stayed in the albergues too. It is fun to travel cheaply. So it works out, we don’t compete with them and they don’t compete with us.

We do not reserve ahead, usually we call on the day we want to stay. The only time this was a problem was in Pamplona on a weekend.

The hotels have all been nice. Sometimes we go cheap, 40 euro, and sometimes nicer, 80 euro, and sometimes in between. Generally you get what you pay for.

Wynette: Room in photo at top is in a private room in La Pata de la Oca albergue in Torres del Rio. Was a great place to stay. We have some stories to tell about that place. Photo below is view outside our window there.

Charlie: The videos show up as blank when I create albums. It is hard to match them with the videos on my phone and some are on Wynette’s phone anyway. So I just include all the videos in the Dropbox albums. Sorry about any redundant ones or videos of my thumb. It is just too slow to filter them out. I’ll do it when we get home. For now just skip the boring ones after a few seconds. But then that’s what you have been doing already right?

Charlie: In Spain they have an evening stroll called the paseo. Italy has something similar. Everyone is out on the streets for a couple of hours around sunset.

Logroño had a wonderful one last night. It lasted for three hours and the streets were full of thousands of people. All the outdoor tables were full of people drinking, eating and smoking. It includes all ages, lots of baby carriages, small children, teenagers, young adults, families, and older people. Everyone mixes.

Later on, around 9, we walked down the streets known for pinxos (tapas) bars. The streets were packed with people. Someone waved to us as we walked by and it turned out to be the desk clerk at the hotel we stayed at in Viana, the town we were in before this. Viana is only 10 km outside of Logroño so she might live here and commute up there. It is only a 15 minute bus ride.

Viana is a cute little town but not much night life for a young person.

There do not seem to be many tourists in Logroño. We like towns like this where we can see how the people live.

Charlie: We want to give Wynette’s foot some time to recover so we are taking a break in Logroño . We will stay here today and start walking again tomorrow April 16.

Wynette: Many towns embed Camino pointers in their sidewalks. Each town has its own design.  Often it’s a simple shell. The ones in Logroño are the most artistic we’ve seen.

Those are my muddy boots.

Wynette: If you live in New Mexico you have probably heard of Portales, a town on the east side of the state. It’s where my mom grew up. My dad grew up very near there, in Dora. My brother Greg was born there. My mom and brother Russ went to college there. Tonight and tomorrow Charlie and I are in nice city of Logroño. We are staying in Hotel Portales, which is on Portales Street.

It is the main street through the old town here.  I believe it means portals.

Wynette: We had a big breakfast then big lunch today, so this was dinner.

Wynette: You can tell how far it is to Santiago by how long the beards are on the peregrino guys.

Wynette: Charlie was happy about his choice for lunch.

Charlie: This is the third memorial cross we have seen so far. None of them gave the cause of death. This guy was 68 so presumably a heart attack. This was the first one with a photo.