19 Miles to Najera, Spain. WHAT?

We left the pension in Logrono at 5:30 am knowing we would be walking a long way today.  It is so nice walking before the cities wake up and the sun rises for another day on the Camino.  We walked for a long time on really nicely paved walkways and in amazing parks for what seemed like miles. Logrono has put a lot of money and energy into making the way nice for passing pilgrims.

We climbed up out of the city through vineyards bursting with ripe grapes of white and red as far as the eye could see. This is prime Rioja country and it is obvious in the care shown this agricultural gem of Northern Spain.  We stopped to pick just a couple to taste and they were very sweet and juicy.

As we made our way up a particularly steep asphalt trail next to a major highway, I finally looked up from my laces and in the chain link fence we were following, were thousands of crosses fashioned out of whatever was available. We had no idea how long we had been in the presence of this silent pilgrims ritual.  Socks, plastic bags, sticks, but most were made out of the straw that was so prevalent all along the fence line.  We decided we had better add ours as thousands of pilgrims had done before us.  I brought some laminated cards of saints and other biblical figures from my time at Cabrini that I spoke of earlier and thought of adding one of those too.  I randomly pulled one out and it was Saint Francis of Assisi who actually walked the Camino!  As we continued on we realized this chain link fence of crosses went on literally for miles!  We wondered at what the stories were of the many who had contributed as we had.

We came to the town of Navarette, where we enjoyed our first cafe con leche and a stale prepackaged type muffin at a cafe that had electric guitars slung all around and a Gibson embedded in the floor.  Pretty cool.  No sooner than we had sat down to enjoy, our young friend from Stuttgart, Ina, wandered up. We had not seen her since the morning we left Pamplona. Remember I had bequeathed her my beloved stick?  I asked how she was and she replied "not good".  She revealed that her knee had been bothering her for the last few days and some of the guys she had made friends with had to go on since she was unable to keep up with their pace.  We implored her to stay the night in Navertte and give herself a break. She seemed to want to heed our advice.  I asked after the stick and she said it was very good to her but that it rubbed a blister on her hand and that she had to give it away to another grateful pilgrim.  Who knows, maybe it will make it all the way to Santiago.  We waved goodbye and good luck not knowing if we would meet again.

When we finally made it to the town of Najera at about 2:30 pm we went to the first albergue. Completo. The second albergue. Completo. The hotel. Completo. You cannot imagine how exhausted I was and how much my feet hurt.  The woman at the hotel directed us to the municipal hostal where upon entering we were admonished not to come to the desk with our boots on.  I retreated without a word to the stinky boot room and sat down on a bench, whereupon the admonishing woman came in and put her arm around me and said, "you are welcome, you are welcome".  I just started crying at this small kindness.  She pointed out some cold water and told us she had 2 beds. The last two that were next to each other.  The last few beds available in town.  We are now humble and suffering pilgrims just like the days of old.  This dorm held 90 souls in a very cramped space.  How wonderful after walking 20 plus miles.  NOT!  I felt like  I couldn't even celebrate this amazing feat in light of what I was facing for the night.  John tried valiantly to keep my spirits up telling me it would not be so bad.  After hot showers we felt a bit better and ventured out for a glass of wine and a cold beer.  I started to feel human again when I saw the face of Ozzie David from our group of friends from the first night at Orisson.

We joined our New Zealand friends John and Debbie for a great pilgrims meal where I was absolutely ravenous and finally got to try the local grilled trout specialty which was delicious.  John had great grilled pork and probably an entire loaf of bread by himself.