Fri 25 Sep - Day 11: Logroño to Najera 29km

194km walked, 592km left to walk. 

Breakfast at 6am and Hans left the building at 7am. Lots of revellers had still not left the area. They competed for the space with the clean up crew who washed the pavements clean and did their best to spruce up the public areas. 

Perhaps the clean up crew could wash away the stragglers as well. 

Lovely artwork at an underpass on the path leading out of Logroño. 

And inside the tunnel. Well it was still mostly dark outside at the time.  

Finally dawn. Lovely early morning light. Best time of the day. 

A selfie next to a dam in a park on the western outskirts of Logroño. 

Today's music selection was Calexico, my current favorite band. They are from Tucson, AZ, play laid back crossborder music and sing sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in both languages in the one song. 

Later, i got a bit sentimental and listened to Oz music. "Down under", "Sounds of Then", "Solid Rock" etc. It made me almost a bit homesick. 

Well well. Are we in wine country or not? 

The day was hot, day, dusty and the path was lined with vineyard after vineyard. 

It felt very very much like an Australian summer at times. 

Looking back at Logroño. Sun is still not fully up from this angle. 

And this boot is no longer made for walking... At least it pointed in the right direction. I wonder how its owner felt at the time. 

Just before Navarette, there were ruins from an old pilgrim hospital. 

The spiel about the hospital if you know Spanish. 

Looking east from the eastern side just before Navarette. Lovely. 

OK, as noted, the theme today in La Rioja was unsurprisingly wine. Here are a few more wine pics. 

Yes, it is vine harvesting time. 

It appeared that they harvested low hanging grapes now. Higher up, most vines were empty of fruit or the grapes looked still green. 

Then the Camino went up a dusty hill and  I saw a slight variation to the oh so common vortexing. 

The surprises did not stop there. I was currently walking a pretty isolated stretch but that didn't exclude Stairway. 

I mean Stairway. I mean "Stairway to Heaven". The oh so familiar chords could suddenly be heard from somewhere. 

Not denied!! The bloke below had found himself a shady spot to sit with his guitar and he played "Stairway to heaven" for bypassing pilgrims. 

The Stairway version was crap but I gave the Led Zep wannabe a euro or so for effort. Of course, then I felt like listening to the real version from my iPhone. Which I did. Loud. And I sang along too. 

There are other entrepreneurs too. Somebody were advertising massage services to peregrinos under a bridge on the Camino. 

I had a final break around an hour before arriving in Najera. The feet had a full on day. 

Tonight's albergue was a lovely place called Puerta de Najera in... The town of Najara.  

The reception:

The adjacent lovely artwork in a break out area to the reception looked really good. 

I arrived at the albergue "Puente de Najera" in Najera just after 2pm. 

Very soon thereafter, I was getting into the odd situation where I asked the lady manager something in English and she replied in Spanish. Despite she was being able to speak English well. I am

picking up keywords here and there so I get the general context. 

Across the street from the albergue and still overlooking the river was a pasta joint. Heck, I haven't had pasta for quite a while. Not since the Spag Bol where the Bol came out of a can. That was awful but I was prepared to give pasta another go.  

So just before 4pm I had an early Ravioli pesto dinner. This was the dish underlay. You can't escape the Camino. 

No, the drink above is not a gin and tonic. The drink is just agua con gas. Very refreshing. 

The raviol pesto was actually very good. Who knows what came out of a can, but it was all hot and tasty. I was happy as a... Peregrino. 

6.50€ later and by 4.30pm I am back in my albergue bed for a catnap. 

No dinner or breakfast was offered in the albergue so a wander to Eroski supermercado was warranted. All good.