Rest day in Logrono

Not too much to say about today.  We were grateful to receive the blessing of a day off.

We've been walking for seven days, which included three of the hardest days on the route. Cathie's blister had reached crisis point and I was starting to feel like a decrepit 60-year-old.

After out early dinner in the solitude of our hotel room, we crashed before 9pm. At 9am this morning I had to give Cathie a poke to wake her up.

You could say we slept the sleep of the virtuous - and so we are. It's a pilgrimage after all. Just in case you misunderstand, we don't take the high moral ground of a few religious pilgrims, who tend to scoff at the non-believers and tut tut about the trail being taken over by non-believers. This is some sort of proving ground for everyone, regardless of their beliefs and if I can speak on behalf of non-believers, it behoves everyone to be entirely tolerant to every form of pilgrimage. Even if you're not religious, you're going to suffer along with everyone else and emerge with a little more clarity.

Enough of that. Our hotel included breakfast. We redeemed the voucher at the lovely Cafe Calenda just around the corner. There was an astounding range of little pintxos (Wikipedia: A pincho, pintxo or pinchu is a small snack, typically eaten in bars, traditional in northern Spain and especially popular in the Basque country, Navarre, La Rioja, Cantabria, and Asturias.)

Our preferences are best described as small bread rolls stuffed with omelet, cheese, ham, tuna, anchovies and so on. We each chose a different one, with different types of bread and different fillings and we shared them between us. Along with the obligatory coffee and fresh orange juice it was a fine repast.

The gothic 14th century Catedral de Santa Maria de la Redondo

Feeling no pain.

We dawdled the day away. Cathie clenched her teeth and lanced her blister. We went to a pharmacy for antiseptic spray. We had another coffee in the square before the Cathedral.

An example to us all.

We took a little wander to ensure we knew how to get out of town in the dark and saw a couple of pilgrims walking the same way.

We found the great chimney that once fueled the vice of smoking - and the statue that celebrates it.

As lunch time approached, we couldn't resist going back to Calenda. This time we chose tortilla. One with loads of cheese and ham, the other with tuna, cream cheese, rocket, capsicum. Both of course based on potato and egg. All served with fresh bread and a coffee.

What else could we do after that but sleep - do as the Spanish do? The temperature was climbing into the high twenties and it seemed only reasonable.

After a high-level conference we made a plan for tomorrow. Despite the fact of our epic ascent over the Pyrenees, the 28km slog the next day to Akeretta and yesterday's long-distance heroics, tomorrow we were facing the longest stage (will it ever end). the 30km doddle to Najera.

While Logrono offers loads of dinner options tonight and we have a free breakfast on offer at Calenda (from 7.30am), we've decided to go for an early feast in our room, a 5am alarm and a 5.30am getaway. 

We went out to the supermarket a while ago and bought some instant salad meals, a bottle of wine, some beer, bananas, apples, snickers bars, yoghurt and other essentials for an early (and cheap) dinner in our room and a basic breakfast. 

I'm forgetting a basic lesson in geography. Logrono is the capital of the Rioja region. 

And what is Rioja most famous for? We had one of these last night and (I) felt we had to repeat the experience tonight. For the eye-watering price of €4.15, who could resist? I don't want to implicate Cathie in this unbridled debauchery, so I have to confess that I take care of a fair proportion. Not only that (he desperately tried to cover his tracks), we have to decant some into our water bottles, as we can't really manage that much wine a night (it's true).

Very few photos today - here's a link to the meagre collection: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mJJmgGQYkvKaaJrL6