Day 7 - Torres del Rio to Logroño

I've learned that some people are trying to follow my progress on a map. http://www.caminomap.com/ is a great site for following me. It has a google map with my path already marked. Below the map is an "albergue" button...click it to remove all the beds from the map. Those are the places I can stay, but can get annoying to look at.

Today, I went from Torres del Rio to Logroño via the town of Viana. I got a late start and took my time since I put in extra distance the day before to get that luxury. The people starting in Los Arcos easily caught up with me (though they left at 6:30 am to do so). I was actually awake at 6:30 because two locals were outside my albergue with Spanish disco music cranked in their car with the windows open. As I soon discovered, they were waiting for the lady at the albergue to open the doors and the bar so they could hit on her. I walked downstairs for breakfast and they were drinking beers and talking to her. They tried to buy me a beer. No thanks.

Viana had a beautiful church, as all of them have been in Spain so far. Except in addition to the physical beauty, when I walked in the door, I immediately heard monks chanting. It was not a recording. Somewhere from the inner recesses of the church, there were monks chanting. It's not something often (ever?) witnessed in the United States. What an amazing experience to sit in the church taking time to reflect and play as monks chanted softly in the background.

Logroño is a pretty neat city with a vibrant Plaza del Mercado. It was Sunday, so everything was closed...which meant that getting anti-inflammatory cream for my knee was going to have to wait. But still, there were people milling around, enjoying a coffee or drink and their Sundays with friends and family. It seems the Spanish enjoy quite a relaxed lifestyle. Between 2 pm and 6pm, everything except bars are completely dead: siesta. I want a siesta. I think I´ll start taking them when I get back home.

On I walk.