Day 8

22.5km (14miles) to Logrono today.  Most of which was paved and in the city.  Yuck. 

We left Viana at 8 this morning.  The sign at the edge if town said 11.5km to Logrono.  My feet have been taking a half hour or more to get "warmed up" so for a while each morning I limp along with my crutch, looking twice my age, as Emily patiently walks slowly with me while my feet adjust to another day of walking.    

I'm guessing halfway to Logrono is when we reached paved road.  I'm sure the good people of Logrono thought they were helping the poor pilgrims by paving the path, but really all it means is that our feet and knees will be more sore at the end if the day.  Logrono didn't seem like a huge city on the map but I think we spent at least half of our 7 hour day in it.  It was busy, big, and stressful.  There are crosswalks but no lights, so you just walk out in traffic and people stop for you.  Reminded me if Rome.  Their Camino signs for the pilgrims were hard to find.  At the intersections there we were,  looking everywhere for that yellow arrow, sometimes we found it, sometimes we took a guess.  The city just went on and on and on.  

Some good things about it?  

1. The church was actually open so we could go inside! 

2.  They had a really nice grocery store where we found salty crackers and peanut butter! 

The church of Santiago in Logrono. 

A mural of an older man with Camino stamps is being painted.

Another statue of two pilgrims.

We walked along a busy highway today.  Towards the end, about 3km from Navarrete, were these crosses all put into the chain link fence.  There were probably more than a hundred of them.

Navarrete, where we are staying tonight. 

LOOK AT THAT!  576km to Santiago!  We're a quarter of the way done!  

For dinner we made pasta with bacon, spinach, and tomato.  Quite tasty and all for $5e.  Food is so expensive here! 

On the way to Mass we passed by the tourism office (for hobbits).  

Here's the church in Navarrete:

I particularly liked this statue if St. Joseph. 

And Our Lady, gorgeous as always

And lastly, here is a photo with Alphonso.  He's the host at the albergue.  Once someone has done the Camino they can volunteer to live in and run the albergue for 15 days at a time.  He asked about my feet (in Spanish, he only speaks Spanish so we've been getting by with my Spanish and a whole lot of charades) and when I showed them to him he just shook his head.  He then told us that he's a doctor and how I should go about threading the blisters.  I am happy to report I've been doing everything right!  Even down to the type of disinfectant he told me to use.  Then he offered to thread my pinky toe for me :). So nice!  

He asked how many days we have walked and shook his head again when we said 8 and he looked at my feet.  He asked if we were going all the way to Santiago and when we said yes he nodded with a solemn kind of approval.  He said we will need to be strong in our heads and in our hearts.  We should eat well and get enough sleep and I need to keep taking care of my feet (and some other advice I couldn't translate!). Later I asked to take a picture with him and told him it is for my mother.  Mom, I just knew you'd be so happy that I had a doctor look at my miserable little feet!  Here's Alfonso

Today I learned I'm not a city girl.  I knew this already, but it was reiterated that not much about the city appeals to me.  

I'm thankful for a yummy donut we bought on a whim, that 2 of my blisters are healing, for Alfonso, and that we get to go to Mass today. 

Quotes

"God made a hole!" -Emily

"We shouldn't have stopped." -Betsy

"It's good we did." -Emily

"I can't move my right foot!" -Betsy