Viana to Navarrete

13th October 2009

21.6 km or 13.5 miles
244 m Down 265 m

Lesley did not have a good nights sleep! Apparently my dad is now ranked very low in the olympic points table for snoring, while I am in the top ten. Mind you I can't comment as I had a very good nights sleep and didn't get disturbed by anyone's snores!

We set off leaving Viana by following various back lanes. They were to us reminiscent of streets we had walked in the third world, with rough tracks and rubbish pilled up all over the place.

Just before we left the outskirts of Viana, we passed a Church and a picnic ground. In the picnic ground were camped a couple of "New age traveller's" with three small children; two goats; and three donkeys and the tiniest tent in the world.

After a couple of hours our route took us to the city of Logrono.

As we came to it's outskirts, we crossed the border between Navarra and Rioja where we had our pilgrims passports stamped at Felisa's house, a pilgrims tradition for a number of years.

There is something surreal about pilgrims walking through a city with backpacks and trekking poles, while all about us, the city folk are working and shopping.

We stopped to visit the church of St Bartholmew, and the Cathedral and to do a bit of shopping. On our way out we lost our way and a friendly native showed us the correct way to go. This is a feature of the Spanish Camino, that if you go wrong, a friendly native will put you right.

After shopping and coffee, we set off again. The local authority have made a long linear park out to the lake at La Grajera, a peaceful oasis for the townsfolk of Logrono and passing pilgrims.

We continued on our way to Navarrete where we were going to spend the night. On the approach to Navarrete we saw an advert for half board accomodation, it was only a few Euros more than staying in a hostal and decided to go for it.

After the usual round of showers and laundry we set off to explore the town. We found an Internet cafe and downloaded our photos. We then went into the church which has a magnificent baroque altar piece, not exactly Lesley's or my cup of tea, but magnificent never the less. All gold leaf and statues and quite stunning.
Saint Roche the Patron Saint of pilgrims


After a nice evening meal we headed for bed.

On the Camino in Spain