Two New Hampshire girls hike the 500-mile Camino de Santiago to raise money for women around the world.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Day Nine: Los Arcos to Logrono. March 21, 2013

First - Paul (Big Green Egg) - I don't know how we missed you today. We are now in Logrono. We are taking a rest day tomorrow so we will soon be a day behind you. I hope we get to meet at some point!

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Total distance: 17.8 miles with around 1000 feet elevation gain (28.6 km with 300 meters elevation gain).

Have I mentioned we loved our albergue in Los Arcos? Casa de la Abuela - they have a communal room for 9 Euros a bed in addition to the private rooms for 35 Euros - the communal rooms looked nice too (we peeked in this morning).

After breakfast at the albergue, we hit the road. Alex decided to switch to hiking sandals today since the temperatures are getting warm.

Leaving Los Arcos and heading out into the countryside...then through Torres del Rio and back to the countryside...then into and through Viana...and then back into the countryside and to Logrono...
















Toward the entrance to the city, we saw where a family has sat for two generations welcoming pilgrims. We met the mother today, but she did not want her picture posted on the Internet. She was a kind lady and we bought some Camino jewelry from her.

We now sit in our hotel room in Logrono and wait for Hugh, who will join us in an hour. Tomorrow we will take a rest day, then we will all be back on the Camino on the 23rd (Hugh too).

Misc. notes: We have become walking clothes lines...when something doesn't dry overnight, we wear it on the top of our backpacks (or dangling from the straps) as we walk the next day.

Since we are taking a rest day tomorrow, some of the folks we've seen over the past few days will soon be one day ahead of us. Franco, Riley, Sue, the nice man from Japan, and all the other nice peregrinos we've shared the trails with lately - I hope we catch up with you at some point. If we do not, then Buen Camino!

Finally, this blog is copied and pasted to two other sites...one person accused me of being arrogant because I wrote the Camino felt easy to the girls because the girls are experienced mountain hikers...out of context, I can see why the fellow thought I was trying to brag. However, explaining the extent of the girls' experience was necessary. At the beginning of our trip, I wanted to be sure certain people fully understood what they were getting into before they began their own Caminos. Quite a few people were following my blog who were about to start from either Pamplona or SJPP. There were many who skipped the snowy section because they felt it was too difficult or just plain no fun - if you enjoy winter and have some winter hiking experience, then you wouldn't have found that part difficult. If you are from a southern climate, hate the snow, and don't enjoy hiking in subzero temperatures, then you might have found that part very difficult. Some folks planning their own Caminos have kids and perhaps they might expect their 8 year olds to walk multiple 13 mile days in a row, etc. If a kid - or an adult! - has no real mountain or hill hiking experience, then walking that many miles day after day will probably not be enjoyable. However, if you/your family are used to hiking the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of NH, the mountains of Maine, the 14-ers of CO, etc. - then the Camino will not feel difficult to you/your family. Etc. Hence my explanation of the girls' experience. Hope that clears things up.

Rest day tomorrow in Logrono. We will resume our Camino on Saturday.

--Trish

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

camino-bound said...

No nice thanks today???? (only joking - but I think it's a lovely habit!)

Patricia Ellis Herr, Alexandra Herr, and Sage Herr said...

I'll do two tomorrow. :)