Author: Thom

I just love the towns that provide maps for pilgrims! As you can see, the town surrounds the base of Tedeón hill, on top of which once stood a great defensive castle. This is not the first, nor will it be the last, town on the Camino that is arranged like this. Nowadays, mostly the hill is used to graze […]

Just of the left of the road as you approach Navarrete, there is something that looks like a short wall, or the outline of a building. It ranges from one to two meters high. This is all that’s left of the medieval hostal San Juan de Acre. You can sort of see it in this photo. Over the centuries, albergues […]

After the industrial wreckage, junkyards, and highway crossings, the beautiful little town of Navarrete finally hoves into view. The town is built around the base of a hill, like several other towns we walked through. Three years ago, our little group stopped here for lunch and got our photos in the paper. Today, this is our destination. Date: 07 April […]

Specifically, we are about to walk across the N-120 at a place designated on the map as Alto de La Grajera. More of a run than a walk, actually. As you can tell by the supplemental photo below, Francine is not exactly thrilled about this. Only two lanes, but there’s a curve to the right and visibility isn’t great. Huzzah! […]

There is, as you can see in the photo, a giant bull that looms over the Camino (and the nearby N-120 Highway) on the way to Navarrete. The Toro de Osborne is 14 meters (46 feet) high and was originally erected to advertise a kind of brandy. Eventually, the EU forbade roadside signs advertising alcohol, but by then the bulls […]

Although I’ve spoken several times here about the strange zombie hands coming from the ground in Navarra and La Rioja, I don’t think previous photos adequately communicated just how frightening and dangerous they truly are. Here you see Francine in the clutches of a giant zombie hand, grasping her with ill intent. Fortunately, we got her out just in time. […]

Here you can see Francine enjoying a delightfully brisk hill climb, with the city of Logroño in the distance. Another pilgrim a few meters back seems to share her opinion but not her stamina. The problem with building towns in river valleys is climbing back out of the river valley again. Date: 07 April 2016 Place: leaving Logroño (La Rioja, […]

The park went on and on and on and on. At this signpost, we left the Camino briefly for a restroom break and, if I remember correctly, ice cream. You can see the building with the restrooms and a little shop just past the crest of the hill in this photo. The park just sort of ends in a field, […]

This is a closeup of the Marian shrine I mentioned yesterday. This is a reproduction of the statue of Nuestra Señora del Rocío, perhaps originally Our Lady of Remedies, the original of which is located in the Ermita del Rocío in Andalusia. You really can’t get more Spanish Baroque than this. When I first saw this on my 2013 Camino, […]

Still walking through that park leaving Logroño. Taking a little rest. I think Francine is fiddling about with the photo she took of the Marian shrine in the foreground. Date: 07 April 2016 Place: Logroño (La Rioja, Spain) Map of the day: