Pilgrims on the Way

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:

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, […]