Today was another amazing day weather wise. Sunny, blue skies, light breeze, maybe 60-70 degrees. It was just gorgeous--the landscape here is very beautiful-bright green rolling fields, small hills topped by villages, olive trees, and now lots of vineyards. I have been in the province of Navarra the entire trip but tomorrow will enter Rioja which is famous for its wines so I am encountering a lot of vineyards. Navarra has been lovely. I had not spent much time here before so it was really a pleasant suprise. I guess I had not thought much about the scenery before arriving here but I can tell you that walking here offers much more inspiration than say, walking on Huntsman up to the Giant plaza in Springfield. Hard to believe..well yes. Navarra has a very strong Basque presence. March 9th, national elections were held and in this area (Basques want independence) they were encouraged to boycott the elections--loads of flyers, posters, etc. promoting the boycot. I had asked young Juan to give me a rundown of the election a few days ago. He felt he had to break it down to a level that I would understand and said, ¨Well, one candidate looks like Mr. Bean...¨ He referred to him as Mr. Bean for the rest of the explanation. I did see a couple of days ago in the paper that Mr. Bean won the election.
Today I walked about 16 miles to the village of Torres del rio. It is very small and perched up on a hill with...yes...another octagonal church---also connected to the Knights Templar. If I am lucky, there may be a bar open serving food. The señora who runs this place is, to me, very typically Spanish older lady. Lisa L. you know what I mean--straight out of central casting for an Almodovar film. She is very nice. Ina has just arrived (I walk faster). There is a guy from Argentina here who started in Santiago and is walking to Rome. We believe that he had a sighting of our dear Christian who is a day ahead of us.
I´m very excited about tomorrow´s walk for I will arrive in Logroño. My friend Lisa once lived there and has written me extensively about which tapas bars to go to. Lisa and I worked together in Salamanca nearly 20 years ago (yikes). Every Monday, Wed. and Friday we would go to Calle Toledo and have tapas from something like 7-8 p.m. on our teaching break. We like to think we know something about good tapas so I´m very excited about tomorrow´s eating of the pinchos (that is what we called tapas in Salamanca and I believe here too.)
As it is not ¨the season¨, not all of the albergues (hostels) are open which can be frustrating as if you want to walk a few miles more you cannot as the place in the intermediary town will be closed so some days you have to limit yourself to 12 miles even if you don´t want to as the other choice is 24 miles. I tried to go a little further today so I could go somewhere farther the next day but the Argentine reports that the place that I want to go to is closed.
Ina has been particularly amused by another character who I forgot to mention. A few nights back we met a guy who is from South Africa and London, he says, who I can only describe as looking like Robin Crabb at age 50. Since this description will do nobody any good except Lisa Carlson, I will just say that he looks like maybe a character from H.R. Puffenstuff --the type that would wear a purple, velvet, Lepruchan style suit and prance around sprinkling glitter out of a basket. He is short and slightly stocky and has a white Keith Partridge style hair-do and a white beard. He seems to love the Camino but does not love walking and takes cabs portions of the way. The hostels really let you stay only one night unless you are severely injured but at the place where we last saw him he was going to see if he could stay another night. Ina said it was a shame that the hostel at the other end of town was closed--otherwise he could have walked the 3/4 mile down there to complete a day on the road. He was very nice but it just seemed and odd sort of vacation for him.
Several have asked, in kind words, how I am holding up. So far so good. My feet are in great shape--no blisters, no soreness, no problems. My legs feel a little tired by the end of the day but not sore. I guess acupuncturist, Larry, fixed my bum knee as that has not bothered me either. My back and shoulders feel a bit sore at day´s end but usually feel okay when I´m walking.
We´re hoping for another great day tomorrow.
Thanks for the comments.
Today I walked about 16 miles to the village of Torres del rio. It is very small and perched up on a hill with...yes...another octagonal church---also connected to the Knights Templar. If I am lucky, there may be a bar open serving food. The señora who runs this place is, to me, very typically Spanish older lady. Lisa L. you know what I mean--straight out of central casting for an Almodovar film. She is very nice. Ina has just arrived (I walk faster). There is a guy from Argentina here who started in Santiago and is walking to Rome. We believe that he had a sighting of our dear Christian who is a day ahead of us.
I´m very excited about tomorrow´s walk for I will arrive in Logroño. My friend Lisa once lived there and has written me extensively about which tapas bars to go to. Lisa and I worked together in Salamanca nearly 20 years ago (yikes). Every Monday, Wed. and Friday we would go to Calle Toledo and have tapas from something like 7-8 p.m. on our teaching break. We like to think we know something about good tapas so I´m very excited about tomorrow´s eating of the pinchos (that is what we called tapas in Salamanca and I believe here too.)
As it is not ¨the season¨, not all of the albergues (hostels) are open which can be frustrating as if you want to walk a few miles more you cannot as the place in the intermediary town will be closed so some days you have to limit yourself to 12 miles even if you don´t want to as the other choice is 24 miles. I tried to go a little further today so I could go somewhere farther the next day but the Argentine reports that the place that I want to go to is closed.
Ina has been particularly amused by another character who I forgot to mention. A few nights back we met a guy who is from South Africa and London, he says, who I can only describe as looking like Robin Crabb at age 50. Since this description will do nobody any good except Lisa Carlson, I will just say that he looks like maybe a character from H.R. Puffenstuff --the type that would wear a purple, velvet, Lepruchan style suit and prance around sprinkling glitter out of a basket. He is short and slightly stocky and has a white Keith Partridge style hair-do and a white beard. He seems to love the Camino but does not love walking and takes cabs portions of the way. The hostels really let you stay only one night unless you are severely injured but at the place where we last saw him he was going to see if he could stay another night. Ina said it was a shame that the hostel at the other end of town was closed--otherwise he could have walked the 3/4 mile down there to complete a day on the road. He was very nice but it just seemed and odd sort of vacation for him.
Several have asked, in kind words, how I am holding up. So far so good. My feet are in great shape--no blisters, no soreness, no problems. My legs feel a little tired by the end of the day but not sore. I guess acupuncturist, Larry, fixed my bum knee as that has not bothered me either. My back and shoulders feel a bit sore at day´s end but usually feel okay when I´m walking.
We´re hoping for another great day tomorrow.
Thanks for the comments.
4 comments:
Hi Laura,
Love the blog. Being of an age, I too remember HR Puffenstuff. Glad to hear the feet are holding up. We are hanging on by a thread here--2 1/2 days until break.
PS Noretreat is mkem.
Geek,
I love the blog. I am showing Kiki Google Earth so she can see where you are today. She wishes she was with you. Remember when she's 16.... I'll pray for your continued blue skies, hot water, and blisterless heels. You can always just "kemp" if your heels get too bad. Keep up the fantastic work on this great voyage! We'll check in daily! Love ya, Lisa Carlson
Laura,
I'm glad that things are going well. Your "reports" are so very interesting. If I weren't already restricted in my pleasure reading because of being in school, I could easily give up novels while your blog is active!
I forwarded the link to your blog to several of my friends. They are also thoroughly enjoying the journey.
You could easily be a travel writer.
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