My mom grew up in Portales, a town in southeastern New Mexico. My dad grew up in Dora which is very near Portales. My Aunt Theressa still lives in Portales.
I knew that Portales was the Spanish word for porches, or portals. When we were in Logroño in 2013, we stayed in Hotel Portales. Yesterday we were walking through Logroño on the street that runs beside the cathedral and I noticed several business with Portales in their name. I thought, “what is it about the word portales that makes it such a big deal around here? Maybe I’ll ask in the hotel.”
Then, I realized that the street we were walking down was named Portales Street! Oh, that explains why so many businesses are named Portales. And then, duh, I realized we’d been walking under a huge porch/portal that went on for several blocks. We were quite enjoying the coolness it provided. So, I suppose the street was named for the porch!!
Cafe PortalesPortales Doner KebabView of the porchesAnother view of the porches
Flights of stairs climbed: 2. That might be actual stairs. Logroño is pretty flat.
We had a low key day. Went to the post office which is always fun. The post offices here are great. They are clearly there to help! We needed to mail a package to Burgos. Plus we had received a notice that the suitcase we mailed from Pamplona to Sahagún would be returned to sender if it wasn’t picked up by April 30. Well, we won’t get to Sahagún till May 6. We had told them May 6 (twice) when we mailed the suitcase in Pamplona but I guess that didn’t get communicated. So, we asked at the PO here what to do about this dilemma. It turned out that the Pamplona PO put down the Sahagún PO as our return address. So, I guess the Sahagún PO will send it to the Sahagún PO. The woman in the Logroño PO this morning told me “tranquila”, not to worry. But it still makes me nervous; we will try to contact the Sahagún PO directly.
Then we walked about a mile to the main train station to get a Tarjeta Dorado (Gold Card) which is a year pass for old people to get a big discount on train tickets. But, unfortunately, for some reason, the entire main ticket and information office in the train station was closed this morning, and only this morning. So … No Tarjeta Dorado (yet) for us. (We were too lazy to walk back there this afternoon.)
Then we walked to the cathedral. There is a Michaelangelo (attributed at least) behind the alter and I wanted to see that. But … The cathedral was closed.
We walked down Laurel Street, famous for its tapas. Seemed much more upscale than it was when we were here 13 years ago. We ended up coming home and making good sandwiches in our apartment.
We did go out again and got to go into the cathedral this time. BUT, the light wasn’t working to show the Michaelangelo painting. It was enclosed in glass and there was so much glare you couldn’t see it without the inside light working.
So … It was a bit of an off-kilter day. Charlie and I are eager to get back on the trail tomorrow.
Correos: the post office. They are very modern and efficient and the employees work hard.Calle Laurel, tapas streetThe cathedral from the side. If you squint you might be able to find the stork’s nest. First one we’ve seen.The Michaelangelo painting. What you see in the middle is just a reflection on the glass of what was on the opposite wall.The light “no funciona”Charlie managed to get a view of it through his camera from the side. I never was able to see it.
They have a lot of books at the post office, mostly children’s books. More books and boxes. We bought a box to ship some things to Burgos. You can even get Camino merch, and socks, and neck warmers.
Pretty run-of-the-mill electric candles. But then I moved down and saw the next one. For a few seconds these looked like real candles. They flicker. Very nice work, quite realistic. We “lit” one, 0.20€. When you put in the 20 cent coin the next one in line lights up.This is one of the spires of the cathedral. It rained a bit as we walked to the church.
