Thursday, October 23,

 

Hard to remember what day it is at times.  Today is my turn to do the laundry on Floor 2.  My "free" time will start after the next load and then I have about 6 hours to come and go as I please.  I might walk towards Mount Cantabria depending upon the wind conditions.  The winds were howling all last night and into the morning.  I hope the Irish girl biking the Camino doesn't get blown over.  The lady at the Tourist Info place said it might be about 50 minutes from old town to walk to the large hill of Mount Cantabria.  Time for a pastry first.

The walk, following the Camino de Santiago, was very pleasant passing through a park and then a slight climb into vineyards leaving shade behind.  I came for the views and here are some pictures of the walk below. 

We had 9 pilgrims last night.  So far 24 countries have been represented.  Besides the typical countries like Spain, France, Italy, German, USA, S Korea, there have been a few uncommon ones like Australia, Hungary, Taiwan, China, Poland, Mexico, and Iraq.  It doesn't  matter where they are from, they all want to pitch in after dinner cleaning the kitchen.  Even though I have been having either pasta or lentils for dinner for the last week, I am still enjoying the food.

As you can see, I am not really going up a mountain.  Looks more like a mesa.

A few grapes remain on the vines.  I have been reading about the wines in this area (La Rioja) and the grape tempranillo is indigenous to this area.  I hope I get to sample wine from this grape during my winery tour next week at Bodegas Franco Espanolas (1890).

The weather was perfect for this fall walk.  Vineyards lined this road.

The soil is very rocky.  I remember part of the Camino being rocky like this.

I continuted past these olive trees until the paved road became dirt with lots of rocks.

To complete the circular loop, I walked over the famous stone bridge entering Logrono.  The 2 hour walk was a perfect way for me to enjoy nature.