Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

As I leave Najera in the morning, I pass by the hiking area and think to myself that I'd really like to come back here with a car so that I'd have enough energy to hike around (for fun, without the big pack.) As it turns out, I think that there were only 6 or 7 of us at the albergue last night. I had been thinking of going to Mass, and was just going to heat up my can of lentils and hunk of chorizo, but the stove was not quite sure if it wanted to heat up, and it took over 45 minutes to get warm. Agnes, from Hungary, is trying to boil water for tea, I think that she eventually gives up.

The hospitalero has friends or family over playing cards in the lobby area. At first this annoys me because it's loud, but then I get over myself, and kinda' enjoy the idea of the locals hanging out there as if in a living room, and that the hospitalero has company. It's only March, I think this albergue is open all year, it probably gets pretty lonely here for most of the winter.

I stop at the bar in Azofra for a cafe con leche and something to eat. Run into the German man and the others who didn't want to stay in Najera because it was "too big," (actually, most of the bunks were taped off so as to not be used) and they didn't want to be around a bunch of snoring people...pointing out of course that he snores the loudest of all. Anyway, they stayed in rooms above the bar, said they were quite nice, and are just rolling out to get walking now around 10 am or so. I think one of the albergues here was open, the smaller one. Go and pick up snacks in the shop across the street, I think last time I came through here, I went to the store and was getting ready to leave town when I realized I had forgotten to pay the bar, and had to run back. When I was here in 2005, I remember a baby, wearing only a diaper came running at me out of the bar, wide eyed, smiling, and with arms open and reaching out to me.

It's another sunny day, though cold. Stop past the golf course on the hill, where I buy an ice cream from the machine and sit on the curb to eat it. This is a newish place. So many of the condos are for sale. It's very empty (of people.) Stop in a park in the next (detoured) village to tape up my feet more and then begin the long walk to Santo Domingo. Pass the German man again and the Czech woman from last night, having a smoke in the shade of some hay bales. Keep walking. There are some alkaline pools on the side of the path, white and cakey. Run into the Dutch guidebook author again, as I'm passing the potato factory, and walk into town with him. He doesn't stay in the albergues. I go and stay in the chicken one. The Cathedral is closed for repairs so no good luck from hearing the cock crow. The chicken are out in the back as I was my laundry at the albergue, clucking as I wash my clothes in the freezing water, looking at me curiously as I make weird noises when my hands freeze. I think they crow and I decide that's good enough. I enjoy their company.

After mass, I come back to eat my can of lentils which Jenz refers to as "dog food." Antonio convinces me his food is better, and as we only have a couple of burners, I eat his pasta and cheese and zucchini (pasta has been making my stomache hurt, but I eat it anyway.) He takes our picture. And even though I know the ceiling is low, I manage to smack my head multiple times when I go into the bathroom.

In the morning, the hospitalera chastises me for my pack being too heavy, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it at this point. The weather has been good so far, but who knows what the days will bring? It is still officially winter.

Logroño to Navarette to Najera

Leave to try to find the Oficina de Correo, in 2005 there was one near to the albergue, but after asking around, I find the only one anyone knows of is back near the bus station. Antonio and one of the other men are going to the clinic to have feet looked at, and say that I should go with them, so I do. The upshot is, that after that side trip, I search for the Camino route, and stop a couple times for snacks, and so don't end up leaving the outskirts of town until fairly late, after 11 am.

It's quite warm out and my feet are tired, so I'm dragging by the time I get to Navarette. The municipal albergue is closed for another couple of weeks. I think that there is a private one, but I have no idea where to find it. I don't feel like walking to Nájera, and I have been told (possibly falsely) that Ventosa is closed. Finally work up the energy to find someone to ask and she points me in the general direction. It's through an alley. The woman offers me a private room for 15 euros, and I take it so I can dump out my bag, and get some sleep without someone snoring. Neither the stove nor the washer are working. (I find out later the price for the shared room was 10 euros.)

I have one of the best dinners I have had in Spain at the Rey Sancho hotel. The waiter seems nice, he's from Colombia, I'm a bit nervous about the food, as I am the only customer, but it's really good. I've been feeling sick all day, so can't enjoy it as much as it deserves...it came with vegetables too.

Estella to Logroño

10 de marzo, 2009

I get up early and drag all of my things out into the foyer so as not to disturb anyone else. The Korean woman is also up and packing. It takes me forever to get up and out the door in the morning along the Camino. I think it's because I have too much in my bag, also, that I have to take everything out to put my sleeping bag in the bottom of the bag (because I have everything inside a plastic garbage sack inside my pack in case of rain. This works quite well.) At any rate, after going down to have breakfast, the usual cafe con leche, melba toast and/or bread and/or crackers with margarine and jam, and by the time I am ready to leave, I am one of the last out the door. It is still a bit dark out. In the summer, I think you have to leave between 4:30 (!) and 7:30 am.

I walk out of the old part of Estella, past the gas station (where I've had a second cafe con leche and something to eat on both previous Caminos, while waiting for more daylight-photo is from 2007) and around the supermarket where I meet another older peregrino I have not seen before. He turns out to be the hospitalero for the albergue in Ayegui. I ask if the albergue was open. I had heard that the other Canadian women had planned on staying there, he said that it usually is when he is around, but then he also tells me that he is just now returning from Santiago de Compostela, so I remain unclear if it was open or not. We walk together until we reach the albergue and say good-bye. It is a beautiful, bright, sunny yet chilly, morning.

Soon I reach the wine fountain at Irache. There are a couple of other peregrinos there, and a fair amount of wine in the tap (sometimes, it's just a drip.) I have a drink, and then fill my bottle with water. As I'm leaving the Monastery grounds, I spy a couple of woodpeckers, and far off in the distance, what apears to be a building of some sort carved into the cliffs. I never do figure out if it is a trick of my eyes or if it's actually there.