Camino Day 11, Tuesday 5/8/07: Logroño

This is our second day in Logroño. I forgot to mention that Fernando's big toenail on the left foot is turning blue and going to fall off so we have stopped the Camino and he has bought a pair of Spanish sandals so that it doesn't rub against the shoe. I never thought I'd see the day he wore sandals.
We had breakfast down the street at El Pato: cafe con leche with croissants grilled with butter and served with mermelada. I said "sounds horridly fattening" but it sure tasted good.

Then we walked around the mercado and the old city some more, stopping at a cultural center where senior citizens had made their own alpargatas, the sandals made from fique fiber, like zapatillas.


In Logrono there is a relief sculpture of Santiago Matamoros or Moor killer and lots of balconies and windows with flower boxes.

We then ventured out to the newer part, stopped at a grocery store and picked up cheese, canned piquillo peppers, fruit and bread for lunch. I felt funny eating lunch in the park. From 12 to 2 we wandered over to the Biblioteca Publica where Fernando read his "Cien Años" and I looked at magazines, trying to glean information about the food and agriculture of the area. At 2 there is nothing really to do but go back to the hotel and take a siesta - which we did until 4, since it actually felt good.


After the siesta we walked down the central walkway lined with European plane trees to the universidad de la Rioja, but there really wasn't anything to see.
Fernando had an espresso and I had a Belgian ale (Gulden Draak - golden dragon) in a wonderful goblet that I wish I could have taken back for Will. Here you can see Fernando's Spanish sandals.

And here you can see that wonderful goblet. This was the only place in Spain where we ran across interesting beers. It must have been the student populations.
We took the bus back to the Casco Viejo where we ran into the German couple from Puente la Reina. They have decided only to walk 10 kilometers a day because she is having problems with her arthritis. But they are retired and have the time to do it.
We stopped by an Italian ice (or helado veneziano) store and Fernando asked for avellano (hazelnut) which was awfully good. Now we are taking a break until the tapas bars open at 8:30 or 9 pm.
We went to Calle San Juan for tapas but they didn't have many bars. We had a very good tortilla espanola with hot pepper sauce at Tortilla Ma Mere and grilled champignones at another place where 3 Muslim young women with head scarves were having tapas with wine. I think they knew the bartender. We decided to go back to Calle Laurel where Fernando had fried calamares and I just had a chorizo in a roll. Then we had patatas bravas but I still think the mayonnaise and tomato sauce are too much. We had eaten so many tapas the night before that this was enough.

Camino Day 10, Monday 5/7/07: Viana to Logroño

The bus trip from Viana to Logroño is very short - about 15 minutes and when we missed the bus at 9 am we were tempted to walk. But I didn't have my boots on and I don't think Fernando would have been good for much else after the walk (about 6 miles). We had a good tortilla espanola for breakfast and it was a good thing because the wait for the next bus at 11:30 was very long, windy and cold. It is hard to believe it was that cold because I am writing this on Tuesday and today is a very sunny, hot day.

Before we went to wait for it, however, we went photoshooting around town again. The architecture is very historic and the balconies serve as backyards: for hanging laundry and airing the dog.


And one can never have enough photos of young artichokes and other spring vegetables like green onions and borage.

In Logroño, the bus left us off at the bus station in and we started walking towards the Casco Viejo (old town) only to discover we were going in the wrong direction and so had to reverse our steps. Logroño is quite big with some broad sycamore planted avenues. They have these very typical wooden and glass balconies that look over the sidewalk.

Fernando always has to stop at the panaderia and we picked up a fardelejo, which wasn't too good, and a teja, which was. We eat way too much bread.
Our hostal, Hostal Niza, is well situated and our room is on the second floor and overlooks the street.
It is expensive (65 euros) but Spain IS expensive, except for the albergues.


The windows are double and the interior one has double panes so it must get cold in the winter.
The hostal is located behind the mercado and between the two tapas streets: Calle Laurel and Calle San Juan. The worst thing about the hostal is that the rugs are thin, stained, and look dirty: I don't think they have vacuum cleaners. (Mother noted this in Burgos on their Triumph rally to Europe in 1958 - that they used brooms but that everything was immaculate.)
We ate a salad and piquillo peppers for lunch because Fernando doesn't want any more menus del dia. Everything shuts down from 2-4:30 for lunch and siesta. So we took a nap ourselves and then went out walking again. Fernando picked up a commemorative edition of Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (he finished it on the flight back to Pittsburgh while I was watching 4 movies).
We decided to do tapas for dinner, which doesn't start until 8:30 or 9 pm, on the Calle Laurel just up the street from our hostal. The first place wasn't very good: berenjena and cheese fried in a batter. The eggplant wasn't cooked enough and it wasn't very tasty.
The next place had grilled champignones which were very good. Then we had pinchos moruños, also good. By now we have had 3 glasses of wine. There was a Spaniard leading a tourist group and so he made a point of telling us also which were the good pinchos. The next one had salchicha and quail egg (good). We also had chorizo and green fried peppers (good). Then the Spaniard pointed out a place with pinchos ibericos - or pork shish kebab with meat from the pata negra pig. It was very good but probably mainly because it was roasted over a wood fire.
Lastly we had pulpo (octopus) a la gallego which I thought was good but Fernando didn't care for. It was after 10 when we got home. When we do this again it won't be after drinking a bottle of cidra! (which we picked up at a grocery store just to test whether it was really as bad as the stuff we had in Barcelona.)

Good Gravy! It's already Thursday?

What happened to Wednesday? I know. We went to Yoga and then took Jen and Will out to dinner (Jen's birthday is the 2nd and we won't be here).

I found a bunch of restaurant suggestions on Epicurious for Logroño. I imagine they are ones we cannot afford as poor peregrinos (pilgrims). They mentioned that this Calle Laurel website had all the information.

The blossoms here in Pittsburgh (which is again the most livable city in the U.S.) are out again - the cherry blossoms and the Korean spice viburnum. OK Maybe that was last week in Pittsburgh and it is a week later in Monroeville, but we are looking forward to cherries this year since we didn't have any last year.

I was looking at the accuweather predictions for Pamplona, Logroño, and Burgos but they showed so much rain in the next two weeks that I decided to stick to the resources in Spain. We will take warm clothes and I will take an umbrella. They said the precipitation would be .16 inches so we aren't talking about too much rain. I was hoping for the blue skies and sun that we see so little of here in Pittsburgh but it looks like Pittsburgh will get more of that than we will in Spain!