Day: April 23, 2026

April 23: Walking Day, Navarrete to Nájara.

Miles walked: 10.7 (a little over a mile of that has been around Nájara).

Total miles walked to date: 115.8

Flights of stairs climbed (equivalence): only 22

We were on the trail by a little before 7:00 this morning. The earliest we’ve gotten out, I think. Trying to beat the heat. It’s been unseasonably warm here. Highs in the 80s. Very hot in the sun. However, it wasn’t quite so hot today (76) and there was a brisk wind so we were actually kind of cold. No complaints!!

We met a nice couple from Ottawa, Canada, today who matched our pace pretty well. We ended up eating breakfast together in Ventosa, about 4 miles from the beginning of the walk. They were excited to learn about ordering fried eggs and toast. (It took us quite a while of camino-ing to realize we could ask for things not advertised on any menu. They hadn’t yet realized that.)

So, it was a mostly typical day on the Camino: up, walk, breakfast, walk, get to our town, find our hotel, be told it’s too early to check in but we can leave our pack, go to find a place for lunch, eat a nice menu del dia, go back to the hotel to check in, get to our room, unpack a bit, rest a bit, shower, rest some more (maybe even take a nap), set up pack transfer for tomorrow, go out for a stroll, look for a bar and have a light supper snack, blog. Soon we’ll go to bed, hopefully sleep well, and start it again tomorrow. Good thing we like this routine.

Two out-of-routine things did happened. (1) I’ve gotten a pretty bad blister on my little toe. So a visit to a farmacia for some mole skin to pad it (recommendation from my new Canadian friend as we were commiserating about our blisters). And (2) Charlie’s neat foldable hat blew off his head while we were crossing a bridge and it fell into the river. Irretrievable.

One more photo of where we stayed last night in Navarrete. Charlie walking up the steps to our albergue after we were done with blogging.
Leaving Navarette this morning. We had a cat join us for a while.
Where we ate eggs and toast in Ventosa
We’ve already walked alongside miles of vineyards. La Rioja is famous for its wines. And often when we see vineyards, nearby will be an olive grove. In the above photo, grapes on the right, olives on the left, and pilgrims piling up in the middle.
Can you spot Charlie’s hat? It doesn’t look irretrievable in this photo but there was quite a bit of water flowing on both sides of the river. He dropped it near a little island in the mddle.
Poor little hat seen from above through telephoto lens.

CpcPix

Just after sunrise, walking through huge vineyards.
Out before sunrise which is not until 7:15 because of Spain’s whacky time zone, thanks Franco.
Massive vineyards to make the La Rioja wine.
We walked by several wineries like this one. We often see olive tree orchards beside the vineyards. This olive tree looks very old based on the size of its trunk. I liked the topiary style pruning.
This is the bar in Ventosa where we had breakfast, our usual fried eggs and toast.
Here is the inside of the bar. You can see Wynette, or Dorothy as she goes by here, going to the table we are sharing with a Canadian couple we met on the trail. Of course, we apologized for the abominable behavior of our country towards Canada.
Every bar has an ice cream freezer like this, nothing special there, but …
On the other wall I see this. What? Gelato in La Rioja? I have never seen anything like this in a Spanish bar. The blue one is nube, cloud, or in this case, marshmallow. So how is this sourced? Isn’t it a lot of work to make gelato? And 12 flavors? Right behind the little white truck that brings the daily bread delivery to the bar is the refrigerated gelato truck?