Category: Map

The towns in Spain seem to use their coats of arms on everything. These are the arms of the Ayuntamiento (town council) of Navarrete, found on a lamp post near the town center. I particularly enjoy the cannons. They make sense, since the town was formed when King Alfonso VIII of Castile moved the people of the nearby villages to […]

Happy Valentine’s Day from House Pistachio! Every morning on our Camino, we took a morning selfie. Most of these are on Francine’s camera, but a couple are on mine. Here we are making silly faces for the camera on a cold and rainy morning as we leave Navarrete. Here’s a pair of maps of the day, as we walk from […]

Here we are walking through the utterly charming streets of the town of Navarrete. It was raining and cold. Fortunately, it’s not yet raining hard enough for us to pull out our strawberry troll outfits. Francine was kind of cranky because the albergue was cold and she didn’t sleep well. You see her here, head-down and warming up by walking […]

A brand new day! Apologies for the blur, but it was early. First breakfast is done, and we are getting ready to leave our albergue in Navarrete for a brand new day of Camino adventure! Here’s a pair of maps of our upcoming day, as we walk from Navarrete to Azofra: Date: 08 April 2016 Place: Navarrete (La Rioja, Spain)

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. […]