Camino Frances, Day 7

 Out the door at 6:51am. Before we start on today’s adventure, I want to talk a little about last night‘s pilgrim dinner. I signed up for the 7pm pilgrim dinner the Albergue was providing for a fee of course. Now not every Albergue’s provide pilgrim dinners. Sometimes the pilgrims themselves who are staying at these Albergue’s will have what’s known as a communal dinner where they will go out and buy food to make a dinner and then each person is assigned a duty like to preparing the food, cooking the food and clean up the mess afterwards.

 I was a little disappointed only 5 people, including me signed up, because I know there were many more people staying here than that. The dinner quest were two woman from Korea. I thought they were either family or friends, but it turns out they were neither, they just meet on the Camino recently. The man sitting next to me, Arnold, was from Australia. He is walking the Camino alone, like me, because he couldn’t get any of his family or friends, to come with him and it’s always been a bucket list of his to do. Side note, I was have a coffee at my first stop this morning, Arnold came walking up huffing, puffing & sweating, and that was the easy section of the day.. I hope he makes it!!! The last of the dinner guest was a lady from Japan, but she didn’t speak hardly at all. The pilgrim dinner menu consisted of a mixed salad, lentil soup, bread, red wine, and tiramisu. All the food tasted really good, and I got too know a little bit about my table mates.

After dinner was over, everybody scattered and went to their individual rooms. My room actually consisted of eight beds, but there was a divider wall, so there were four beds on either side of the divider wall. No bunkbeds these were just single beds. My roommates consisted of the two Korean women, from dinner. I had an older Japanese man sleeping next to me. I thought to myself well tonight I might have actually a good night sleep, boy was I wrong. The last person who I thought would be a snorer of the group was the youngest Korean woman, but that girl snored all night long.😡

A mutual decision amongst all the people staying in the room was 5am was the designated time that people were going to get up. Some people just like to get up early and start their walk early. I don’t need to get out the door that early, but others like to do that. I was actually just about the last one from our room to leave the Albergue, the funny thing is I ended up passing all of them during some time of the day🤣

Okay, now on too the walk today. Out the door at 6:52am, 52 degrees out, mostly cloudy, no breeze to speak of. From my Albergue to the exit of the city is just a short walk. I pass the big old church and head out into the countryside. I hear the Church bells ring at 7am, I turn around to look back at the church and to my amazement I began to witness a beautiful sunrise about to happen. I stop and watch the sky turn a pinkish orange color with clouds filling in the spaces and the church bell tower is the center piece. If those church bells didn’t ring at the exact time I may have never even noticed the sunrise. It’s as if the bells were screaming, not ringing RANDY TURN AROUND!!!. A Camino moment for sure. 

As I continued down the Camino path, knowing that I would be entering a couple small villages at about the 4 mile marker of the day. I was in need of some coffee. I entered the first village and came across a little store that had coffee. The store was operated by an older gentlemen. I walked up to the counter, ordered my coffee, also picked up a banana, lemon muffin & a snickers bar for latter on. The funny part about this was, this place is probably the local town hangout. There were 6 older Spanish men sitting at table all smoking those little itty-bitty cigarettes that barley stick out between there fingers and drinking tiny espressos.🤣🤣 I bet you can envision what I was seeing.

This is the point where I re-meet Arnold, my dinner mate from last night. From this point on the walk gets much more difficult with a lot of elevation gains. Also the  clouds are starting to get darker, no rain was forecasted but it was beginning to look like it. So as a precaution I strapped my rain jacket on top of my pack for easy access. I proceeded to go through the next town which featured many more food & drink options. Now the path changed to going up & up then down & down, then up & up, then down & down with a couple of pretty steep, but short climbs. I witnessed a lot of pilgrims huffing & puffing on those climbs. One of those short climbs, it was so steep I felt like I was walking at a 90 degree angle to the ground. Once again the straightest point is the fastest way to get there I guess.

Around 9 am I felt my first rain drops and the temp got colder. I decided to stop and at least cover my pack w/ my pack cover. A few more mins. passed and little more rain, so stopped put on my rain jacket. Now there is a thing that is know as the Camino rain curse, as soon as you put your rain jacket on it stops raining. So what did it do you ask, well it stopped raining, I got hot and sweaty jacket came off. About 30 min later same thing, starting raining a little, rain jacket on and few mins. later rain stopped. Soon afterwards jacket is off. I said to myself full me once full me twice but not three times, yeah it didn’t rain again. 

I was still walking past fields of grape vines (wine), wheat and a few sprinkled in olive tree orchards. At 11am I reached the town of Viana. Sitting up high on a hill with not 1 but 2 big churches. I started to look for a cafe or restaurant to stop and grab a bite to eat. A thing about the cafe stops on the Camino, they are easy to spot because all the pilgrims are there hanging out. I pick a cafe right across from the 1st big church. A surprise, the church door was actually open.. Whatttttttt, that never happens. So I marched right into the church, took my pictures, looked around briefly, got my all important stamp and out the door I went. Dropped my bag off at a table w/ other pilgrims sitting. I don’t advise just leaving your backpack alone, but leaving its/ other pilgrims it will be well protected. I ran into the cafe, ordered a Spanish omelette slice, my Café con Leche & a ham/cheese Croissant sandwich. Ate my breakfast chatting with other pilgrims and talking about what the rest of the day will be like. I also removed my shoes and socks to let my feet air out a little, and I put my rain jacket back on because it was getting chilly sitting outside. After about 45 min it was time to get back on the trail. With my shoes/socks back on, back pack securely fastened I said my goodbyes, waved I said I’ll see you on down the trail. Kind of a lie because I never saw any of them again the rest of the day. Leaving Viana, I passed the 2nd big church but is was totally destroyed from what I could not tell you. The only thing left standing were the four walls. 

Of course I only get a couple miles down the road and jacket comes off. The title of this day would be “The Day of the Jacket”  It can be a real pain to put on the jacket because every time I have to stop, take off my pack then put the jacket on then put the backpack back on.  Okay that’s my poor pity Randy segment. I leave Viana with about 6 miles to Logrono. The terrain is about the same as before but not as severe. Today I did not walk with any particular pilgrim. It was just one of those days where you just kept meeting the same people you would pass them then they would pass you and you would pass them back, so it was just that kind of day. I call it slinky pilgrim traffic..

Around 12:45 I reached the outskirts of Logrono. First passing through the industrial region of Logrono then moving through outer suburbs of Logrono. I have left the dirt trails behind and now walking on asphalt which I’m thankful for as I was tired of walking on the dirt. At this point in time, I stopped to look at my Google Maps so I can plan a route to my hotel that I am spending the night at tonight. Google maps tells me I’m just under 1 mile to my hotel so I just continue on the Camino Mark path for now. By now my feet are really starting to feel tired. I’m coming up on nearly 17 miles. It’s interesting now that I’ve been walking seven days my shoulders are hardly hurting at all. 

I am now following the Ebro River. I meet up with a couple Italian pilgrims that we all started on the same day. The one guy is well over 6ft tall, bald head and the huge mustache. His pack looks about his size too🤣. Finally crossing over the Ebro River my Google Maps takes over. Just like Google Maps it takes me up & over, across & trough until I finally reach my hotel. I am staying at Hotel Murrieta, which is already on the marked Camino route. So instead of follow Google Maps, I could have just stayed on the Camino route  and saved miles and time😡. But that’s my bad for not realizing my hotel is on the Camino route, live and learn I guess. 

Did any of you pick up that I am staying at a hotel, not an Albergue or hostel tonight. Tonight is my rest night from all the snoring people. I have my very own room w/my own bathroom. Life is good tonight!!!! But I still did wash my socks and underwear in the sink🤣🤣, so some things don’t change.. Camino Life..

Took a nice well deserved long shower, hung my laundry to dry. Socks & undies hanging from the bathroom shower door🤣. I was able to face time w/ Maryann, that is always nice. Headed out to grab a bite to eat. Found a hamburger joint, across the street, then followed that up with some chocolate hazelnut gelato. Took in the city sites ofLogrono. The Cathedral was still open to my surprise. I went in, took my pictures, walked around and found the lady who was stamping pilgrims passports. This cathedral is massive and just trying to describe it does not give it justice. Right outside the cathedral was a bar with outside tables and chairs so I grabbed one of those tables, perfect place to people watch and work on my blog. I also got a nice cafe con Leche to pass the time. It started to briefly rain so I gathered up my stuff, finished my coffee and headed out to trying to stay dry. Good thing it was only a brief shower just basically got everything a little wet. 

Logrono is the biggest city that I’ve come through since I left Pamplona. After the rains had stopped The city just seemed to wake up all of a sudden there were just people everywhere. All the restaurants filled up the coffee shops. People are just milling around everywhere. It was crazy. It’s like a light switch was just turned on and everybody came out. At around 7:30 PM, all of the cities church bells just started ringing and ringing and ringing. Maybe that was the signal all clear to come outside.

Gear time, Going to talk about my pants and the shirts. I brought two pairs of REI lightweight long pants with zip off bottoms and one pair of REI shorts. I also brought a pair of Nike running shorts, but those are just what I sleep in.. I am happy with that selection. The shirts, which I’m not so happy, I brought four long sleeve lightweight hoodie type shirt, for mainly sun protection. I should’ve just brought three not four. I brought one caught cotton graphic T-shirt, my town shirt and then I brought one lightweight short sleeve.

Stat Time—> Los Arcos to Logrono , Stage 7

Miles-18.7

Time- 7hr 14 min

Elevation- 1,417 ft

Temp- 52- 63 degrees w/ trace amount of rain

Tomorrow I am off to Najera, about 17-18 miles

Sorry if there are errors in this copy, my first edition got erased😡😡 so I had to do this blog fast to get it out.

Thanks for ready, and may you have a wonderful day.