The sunrise this morning was SO beautiful!!

When I woke up this morning, I wasn’t even sure what time it was or where I was. The room was SO dark and it felt like there was not even the smallest amount of light getting in! I could have easily slept all day! But choosing to get up and not sleep any longer allowed me to fully appreciate and watch that beautiful sunrise. We got ready, had a coffee at our albergue and headed out and up. Literally, just up.

I could tell it was going to be another beautiful day and planned accordingly this time. Yesterday I wore my pants thinking it it was going to rain and it was so hot. I did not make that mistake today! We went straight up… Then straight down. At the highest peak for today, there was a man with a stand of snacks for donation. He was the last pit stop for 7.8km, which is quite a while from what we are use to. He had this beautiful display he had done with the rocks. Debbie and I each had a banana and split a cup of orange juice. On our way out there was a tree with with tons of ribbon tied to it and a few flags. Debbie saw this and immediately asked me to take off a piece of fabric she had tied to her bag from Cambodia. I was confused for a second and then realized what she wanted me to do. I have her the piece and asked if she was going to tie it to the tree and she said yes. Yes because she made it through the first week of the Camino. She survived. It was an emotional moment but a beautiful one. And now a little piece of Cambodia is on that tree now too.

Today was filled with a lot more ups and downs than yesterday, plus more sun. But as always, the views don’t disappoint. We met a family from Washington and I walked with their daughter Diana for a while. She’s 33 and works for a local Non-profit in her local community. We talked a lot about the world, climbing, hiking, feminism. It was pretty great. She recommended a book called The Power by…Naomi……yep. all I can remember, but I’ll look it up.

We passed TONS of graffiti and art along the way and it’s always just as beautiful. I had to take some photos today because I loved them too much!

We FINALLY made it to Logroño and to an albergue. Debbie wants new headphones because she lost hers unfortunately along the way. We decided to head out and into town to find that and food. Little did we know what we were walking in to.

Today is Festivities of San Bernabé. It’s on June 11th each year. The town honours their patron saint, Saint Barnabas who is believed to be part of the Victory of Logroño’s resistance to French invasion under Francis 1 in 1521.

The city was popping.

And entirely overwhelming. It is a large city that makes Pamplona look like a cute little town (which it’s not) coupled with the fact that it is the most people we have seen in a town or in general in a week. It was a lot! But so cool! It rained too- which we weren’t ready for. We had to double back for our rain coats. We passed Neil twice during this process and once or twice walking today.

After a while of exploring the various vendors and ALL THE CANDY, we decided we needed real food. Which was a mess. Being downtown, during this festival, everything was packed. Alot of these places we’ve stopped have the exact same kind of food and I’m so over it. It’s super Western and none of it is what I want to eat, so between nothing looking good to me, Debbie being vegetarian, or cost- we were a mess wandering around looking for food. But eventually, we found a loud bar where I got a Mediterranean salad (yum!) And Debbie had a sandwich that she enjoyed as well. It was so loud, we were over it, that we hardly spoke a word. We finally came back, showered, did some laundry, and mentally prepared for tomorrow.

There’s three older gentlemen next to us from Ohio. One of them warned us that their friend snores loudly and played a recording. It’s so loud. So. So. Loud. And I feel bad, cause I know he can’t help it. But… I don’t think tonight will be good sleep and tomorrow’s going to be a long day. Looking like 18 miles of mostly uphill.

Day mileage: 13.7
Total mileage: 112.3
Personal mileage: 15.61

This morning was beautiful! We went back to the same cafe we went to the night before for breakfast and so I took some photos of it!

Ummm so the beggining of today’s journey began with a wine fountain!

We are just beggining to passed through wine country and there is a famous winery (which I didn’t know of course until we were there) that has a free fountain, one spicket of wine, one of water. Whaaaaat! So cool. Naturally, we had to stop and check it out ourselves. We had no cups, because everything we have is holding water. BUT luckily I heard the family from Colorado talking and apparently people often use their scallop shells to drink from it. So, we did! Well, I did. Debbie just went for it because she is way cooler than I am.

Some people were filling up bottles or parts of bottles but dang! It’s free, be nice. Also, we hiking! Wine and hiking sounds like a mess to me, haha.

But today was an absolutely beautiful day! There was a long trek ahead of us and we were planning on pushing an extra 6.8km to make the next day easier. The sun was freaking OUT today. I got some pretty sweet tan lines and my freckles are definitely back. We were sweating. But luckily this stretch was flat. But so much flat, I felt like I could feel all the things that hurt even more! My shoulders were giving me a hard time today. It did not feel good. We made it to Los Arcos which is where our map had us stop, rested and pushed forward. It was a long day, which is what made the day hard. Long in mileage. But these amazing sights never get old to me, day after day.

We pushed forward all the way to Sansol and literally stopped at the first albergue we could find. It was a nice quiet little place and there were only three other people in our room for twenty! We all had our own corners, it was so nice. We showered before and Debbie went to go examine her feet, they’ve got all kinds of things happening. But two of her toes were black on the ends! Bruised! They were so bruised, it looked so painful I felt so bad. She also developed a new blister- on the bottom of her foot. Absolutely not fun.

We ate at the restaurant that was part of the albergue, having a yummy meal! All of their standard mixed salads I have learned come with tuna on them. Reallllllly need to start asking for that to not be included. Dinner was delicious and I caved and had some ice cream! It was yummy.

Day mileage: 18.1
Total mileage: 98.6
Personal mileage: 18.3

We headed out this morning with our usual selfie and a little rain. We crossed over some beautiful bridges on our way. We’ve walked over SO many bridges this trip and some of them are just absolutely beautiful. I loved this one that was bright red and had these yellow flowers all around it. I couldn’t believe how vibrant it all looked with the green in the background. It was just SO beautiful.

I was waiting for everyone toToday’s walk was said to be easy, and I do think it has been the easiest day we have had on the Camino so far. Easiest in that it had been the flattest and most consistently solid terrain so far, which helps.

{Photos}

It rained quite often today but not as much as the first day or so. Rain jackets and shorts were enough to handle this weather. Today we meet a family from Colorado who did party of the trail last year and is continuing it on this year, but not going all the way. Their two children are just about to start high school in the fall.

We got to Estella and the weather completely changed. It was a beautiful day! The sun seems to be coming out in the afternoon here. We walked just down the road from our albergue the most beautiful little restaurant! They had loads of vegetarian options and Debbie was in heaven! She got a mango smoothie and this there cheese spinach tofu pizza and OH MY GOD it was soooo good! I originally wasnt going to eat just yet but I tasted hey pizzas and it was so delicious! We ended up splitting it. The woman working was just so dang sweet. She made fun of me for not wanting good and then eating the pizza. In the back of her cafe, there’s a giant open room where there is free yoga in the evenings for those walking the Camino! So cool! We loved this place and decided we had to go back in the morning.

We got back to the albergue. We sat outside for a while together and then Debbie say out front and eventually went upstairs to bed. I called my parents and talked to them for about an hour and a half which was really nice. After that, bed!

Day mileage: 15
Total mileage: 80.5
Personal mileage: 15.73