Author: Thom

And so it begins. The Camino route out of Logroño goes through a massive urban park. How massive? This is part of it here – and it looks pretty darn rural, no? There are long looping paths for walking and biking, lakes with old men fishing, playgrounds with hordes of children, assorted gardens, and even shrines. It’s enormous and kind […]

My apologies for the lateness of today’s post. The post queue was empty, I served at a funeral this morning, and I’ve been working ever since. Normally I try to schedule these to post at about 8:00 AM, but here it is after 4:00 PM, and I’m just getting started. To catch up: we’re leaving Logroño. We find this art […]

Three years ago, a group of four pilgrims stopped here for a beer. My friend Eamon from New Zealand and I allowed ourselves to be taken here by a Berliner and a Bavarian – Viola and Petra – who were desperate for a proper German beer. Well, I can’t say the beer was great, but the company certainly was. Santa […]

The art on the Camino is fascinating. Obviously, the older art – say, before the end of the last century – is all religious. Kind of obvious, I should think, for a pilgrimage route. Much of the modern art, however, is not so much about the object of the pilgrimage as about the pilgrims themselves. Seems appropriate for our myopic, […]

Here’s a thing you don’t see in the United States very often: not only a street named after a saint, but a statue of the saint himself next to the street sign! There are many examples of these along the Camino, and I never tire of them. This was part of our odyssey in looking for a cash machine. We […]

They say that a Basque, like an Elephant, never forgets. Certainly, that seems to be the message of this mural, found in the place we stopped for lunch. I find this utterly delightful. It did not, however, help me find the restrooms. Date: 07 April 2016 Place: Logroño (La Rioja, Spain) Map of the day:

Moving into the central part of Logroño, we came to the Plaza de Mercado, dominated by the Co-Cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda. It was, sadly, not open. So we headed to a local eatery on the plaza for a well-deserved lunch. Our next adventure will be trying to find an ATM. Date: 07 April 2016 Place: Logroño (La […]

The Bodegas La Reja Dorada is one of the many historical buildings on the Calle de Ruavieja in Logroño. It may not look like much, but it’s been a bodega since 1555. According to the sign, which you can see on the left of the building, La Reja Dorada houses the wine cellar of the family of Doña María Jacinta […]