Torres del Rio – Loroño – Najera

The past two days have been a bit of a change in pace.

Yesterday, we took a short day, only 20km. Thus we slept in! More than that, we stopped half way in Viana for lunch, a few games of cards and finally Sunday Mass. Because of this we ended up walking in the heat of the day, again. The day, however, was brought to a joyful end at our parochial donativo. Although we had our first night on floor mats, we were treated to a medieval fair and a tasty home cooked dinner at our Albergue. The cook was a former diplomat from Canada who loved spain so much that he now spends his time running the local donativo. We had plenty of food and even some entertainment as the medieval rock band, who had spent all day roaming the streets, stopped by for a bite to eat and a few songs.

Today was much different for other reasons. Instead of two fairly large cities, we walked through a lot of Vinyard today. Just about 20 out of 30 kms were filled with few other things in sight. After the first 12 or so kms I decided to break away from our American-Swedish walking group, which has formed over the past few days. I spent the day in my thoughts speaking only for prayers, thinking out, and the ocassional “burn Camino!” The silence was peaceful, except when the unexpected bikers wizzed by, and the time allowed me to process my fursr week of walking.

I must stop now as the albergue worker is telling me to go to bed. So I look forward to Camino week one for the second time and the experiences it will bring.

-Michael