Camino bore, day 6. Highs & lows.

The effect of chocolate

 Torres del Rio to Logrono. Highs and lows. Clothing a dead giveaway that this was another cold, rainy day; despite intentions to live healthily for a month, we found that chocolate was the thing that was needed for survival; that, and another drug, Ibuprofen. What DID they have in the 17th C? My diary has a prominent reference to 'Hot choc - the gooey kind - in Viana was heavenly. Dip in doughnutty thingies. Marvellous.' Oh DEAR? You hoping for profound pilgrim thoughts? You won't find them here!

The guidebook we carried said 'Ermita de las Cuevas is a good spot to rest and enjoy the shady trees'. I couldn't go on; had slept poorly, and feet were giving me lots of jip. These boots were not made for walking the camino, and this is their last appearance. David kept a lookout for wolves, and a 20 minute ZZZ made all the difference to my stamina.

The Logrono experience was a mixture: big city, refugio hard to find; dinner hard to find too as 'It is not the time when the Spanish eat', so we ended up with a picnic on the bed; actually a wonderful chorizo, but not good not to have hot food at the end of a hard day. Also went looking for new boots; mercifully, 8 pm seems to be the time when the Spanish go looking for new boots; hard to tell if they fit when the foot is so sore it cannot bear to be touched. Success. Fearfully committed myself to new boots, and resolved to leave old boots behind in Logrono refugio the next morning.

The descent into Logrono

17th C Laffi describes Logrono as 'really a very grand city, very beautiful, rich and comfortable, with an abundance of everything'. We have lots of pics of great architecture along the camino, but I find myself looking most intently at the humble things that people live in. On the descent into Logrono we passed many houses with a shack-like appearance, with people living simply and making good use of the small amount of land around them. Seeing this makes one aware (though we had always been) of the potential of one's own plot, and this year, since we missed last spring for planting & weeding etc there is much to be done, we are trying our best to do well with the veg. The Barton apricots are doing very well too, looks like the best year yet!

I can't go on....