Day 7: Torres del Río - Logroño

We will always remember today as the day I lost my knickers. Or better said, I misplaced them. Yesterday we followed our daily routine, after arriving at the albergue, we showered and then did the laundry. We placed every item of clothing above the heaters, so that all of it would be dry by the next morning. I remembered that my knickers were the first to dry, I even remembered taking them from the heat.. But this morning I couldn't find them anywhere! Anyway.. Along with the telling of our day: we don't know what the temperature outside was when we left this morning, but surely below 0 degrees Celsius.. Because the ground was frozen. And it remained frozen for at least the next 15km of our day!




We saw a handful of pilgrims today, some of which we got to know nothing about, others with whom we chatted a bit, like the Italian pilgrim who started at Saint Jean the day after we did. On the way we also met a lovely Spanish couple on a morning walk. They told us that they had done the Camino Português a few months before; we talked about the Camino and Portuguese wine (verde branco), which they enjoyed a lot! Before we resumed our walking, they advised us to stay at the municipal albergue at Logroño and not to get lured by the hospitaleros from other albergues.





As soon as we got to Logroño we heard a woman asking if we were looking for a place to stay; "Go to that one over there, it's very nice!". Just as we had been warned.. We enjoyed Logroño. We made a pit stop at a cafe and ate some worderful bocadillos: pork loin with red bell peppers and tortilla with green bell peppers, plus two cañas. Then we sat on a park bench drenched in sunlight until the albergue opened at 15:00. Later we stopped by a cafe for some chocolate con churros (yum!). Finding something open to buy dinner on a Sunday after 18:00 was hard (you had warned us, Fiona!), but we managed.




Back to the albergue, I put my hand inside my fleece pocket and out comes a pair of knickers. Not sure what I've learned from this, but I'll find out eventually.

Day 6: Ayegui - Torres del Río

We woke up to a rainy day. Ponchos over our heads and off we go. Now that I did want to use my camera, I couldn't risk it to get wet. Fortunately, it stopped raining after our lunch break at Los Arcos: the sun shined on the last 5km, drying our clothes and warming our hearths.






We noticed a change in the landscape today: although we can still see some mountains around us, they are becoming more sparse, and the path undulates over small hills. Tonight we're staying at Albergue Maribel. It's a nice Albergue, although we paid 10€ each and not 7€ as we predicted: in winter the heating rises the price.. Oh well, it would have been nice to know that in advance! Torres del Río is a very small village with a beautiful 12th century church. The nicest thing about its small size is that we got to see it pretty quick, 'cause it is freaking cold outside!

Day 5: Puente de la Reina - Ayegui

Yesterday I didn't feel like taking pictures. That's the Camino, your mood swings with the ups and downs of the road. However, the view was wonderful as always and the sun was shining the whole way. We got to Estella where we stopped at "Mi Bar" to get something to eat. Two bocadillos (tortilla with tuna and tortilla with red bell pepper, both delicious) and three glasses of wine (small glasses, ok?) for 7€. Then we decided to walk 2km more until Ayegui.



We stayed at San Cipriano, an Albergue inside a sports pavilion. The good side of it was that there wasn't bunk beds on our room, on the other hand there was no heating neither. And the showers were more lukewarm than hot.. Thank god for blankets! A nice touch of this evening was to see a kid's football practice. They were about 7 years old and it was really fun to see them play around.

Day 4: Cizur Menor - Puente de la Reina

Usually we start walking at 8:00, but since we were the only pilgrims at the albergue and today's stage was fairly short (only about 20km) we decided to sleep a bit more, leaving the albergue at 9:00. We were expecting rain today, but the weather was really nice. Actually, it seemed like we were dodging dark clouds all day long: every time we looked back, it looked like it was raining on the hills we had just passed.





Today we crossed Alto del Perdón, a big hill where a famous pilgrim monument stands at the top. It was really windy up there, and the view was great.




We were thinking about getting something to eat when we got to Puente de la Reina, but then something awesome happened. About 6km before our destination, we saw two guys walking on the Camino. Since we walk faster than most peregrinos, we eventually caught them. As we were getting closer, one of them took our photograph. And he offered us some food! He said he thought he would be walking alone, but since he had found a friend and they would be having lunch together at a restaurant, he didn't need the food he was carrying. We tried to say no, but he insisted. He gave us one big "jamón" and cheese sandwich, three apples (biological, he said) and a can of Coca-Cola! Also, he gave us a Saint Francis' Cross (a Tau cross). Finally, he said a little prayer in Spanish, something like this: Que el viento sople siempre por vuestra espalda, Que el sol caliente vuestro rostro, Que la lluvia lave vuestros pensamientos y Que cualquiera que sea el Díos en que creáis vos lleve en la palma de Sus manos. It was a wonderful gift. We thanked both with words and our smiles, and we went our separate ways.





We got to Puente de la Reina at 13:15. We ate the sandwich the guy had given us and then presented ourselves at the albergue. Bernhard arrived a few hours later and then another Spanish guy. Were now waiting for some tea that Bernhard is preparing and then we'll all share a meal :)

Day 3: Larrasoaña - Cizur Menor

Today we left Larrasoaña expecting rain, but the weather was fine all day and the sun shined through the clouds now and then. Yesterday at the local minimarket we were told that the river Arga had flooded and that it would be impossible to walk some parts of the way. So the general advice was to keep to the national road until Pamplona (about 15km). Luckily, by the next day the water level had dropped enough to allow us to avoid most of this busy main road.




After all the woods and mountains, we were arriving at Pamplona, the first city in our way. When we were preparing to take the next photo, this dog appeared and insisted on being in the picture, despite his owner's callings.


We liked Pamplona very much. It reminded me of my beloved Madrid, but with a more clean look and an atmosphere that exhaled peace and quite, a very rare quality in a city.





At lunch we decided to stop at a tapas bar. Two "cañas", a couple of mini-"bocadillos" and some "patatas bravas" and we were good to go the last 5km until Cizur Menor.


Albergue Maribel is the most expensive we've experienced yet (10€ each) but with excellent conditions: we have a access to a kitchen, a tv, a washing machine (we have washed almost all our clothes) and a wonderful WiFi connection, which we've been expecting for a long time now!


I don't know when we will have access to the internet again, but we'll update the blog as soon as possible ;)

Day 2: Roscenvalles - Larrasoaña

Winter wonderland, that's the best description I can give you of this day. We have woken to a beautiful winter scenery, everything was covered in white and it had finally stopped snowing. Many of the pilgrim's decided to walk on the road to avoid getting lost due to snow-covered markings, but since we had the GPS tracks, we went for it. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.











We followed animal tracks for most of the way: rabbits, foxes, wild hogs, mice and many others that I could not identify. The silence ruled over those mountains. Even the birds seemed surprised to se us there, letting us get surprisingly close. To be honest, I felt I was in a Disney's movie. As we descended, the snow accumulated on the tree branches started to melt and kept falling on our heads for most of the way.

We stopped for a moment at Zubiri to rest our tired feet and buy something for dinner, after which it started raining. But it only took 5km more to reach Larrasoaña. That night at the albergue there were only five pilgrims, including ourselves: Bernhard, one of the Spaniards from Roncesvalles and another guy doing the Camino by bike. 6€ for a bed and a hot shower, only the essential. And we slept like babies.