Parador Vitoria-Gasteiz

... in French. The change in geography is quite startling though because as soon as we entered Spain it became more hilly and mountainous. One thing that we have noticed is that Spanish campsites are a little on the expensive side but hey, it's still cheaper then hotels. On to another long day of driving….oops….

I love the fiesta culture in Spain. In my last entry I said I had to go as it was fiesta night, it wasn't just fiesta night it was fiesta week ! The vendimia (wine harvest festival) in La Rioja is known as San Mateo and is held on and in the days surrounding San Mateo (St Matthews Day) on September 21st.

The streets of Logrono are packed with tens of thousands of people of all ages effortlessly blending lively party with traditional ceremony. To understand a bit ...

... thanks, David, Maria, Elena y Laura. Wish I could have also made it to Bilbao as well – but there's always a need for an excuse for another trip, and hopefully next time you guys will be back in your country and up for showing a guest your city!). As such, I had originally planned on visiting this quite cosmopolitan resort town on the Atlantic for a night or two of R&R. However, by the time I entered Spain, my cravings for mountains and cooler weather overrode the need ...

... easy but we spent lot of time walking on a road! we prefer the pilgrimage by walking on footpaths... since that day we hate walking on roads!

Navarrete is a small village with a charming refuge and all the services u may need (supermarkets, ATM...)

Another easy but long stage... A few kms away from Estella we began to see Logroņo, it seems to was so close, but Not!
I recommend the people who is going to do this stage to take a break in Viana, a beautiful village with an incredible church and city hall.

The main refuge in Logroņo is too small, so if u'r going to be late, u better look forward another refuge or hostel.
Logroņo is another of the ...

This stage has no difficulties, the landscapes begin to change, we left the woods behind us and we begin to see beatiful fields til we reach our destination.

In Los Arcos I don't recommend the main refuge... when we were there we saw lots of bugs, an unpleasant smell, a small kitchen... the village is not very impressive but the main church (worth to see)

... a Dutch guy rode up from the other way and stopped to talk. He was cycling from Santiago to Istanbul through September and he had done what I was about to do over a month in just 6 days. From here, I decided to press on to Torres del Rio as it was only a further 7km and we were still in the early part of the day. As I crossed the bridge, I reached a cemetary which had the inscription over it translated as "You are what I once was and will be what I ...

... i miei 30 km li ho fatti. Il panorama e' cambiato, siamo passati dai campi di grano le pecore e i boschi alle micidiali colline, disseminate di vigne e ulivi e nessuno dei due minimamente in grado di offrire la minima ombra. Oggi faceva un caldo bestiale, mi sono ustionata le braccia e le gambe nonostante la crema (comprata in ritardo), sono arrivata qui che ero un disastro... stanca morta, sudata, puzzolente, zoppicante, con le ...

... heart of wine country, following the Camino through fields of grapes for the region's famous wine industry. Up a hill, down a slip road, over another toll road...and then it's into Navarrete. ********************** One of the greatest pleasures of biking the Camino this year is that the completion of the A12 motorway has taken a large part of the traffic off the highways, effectively turning the N111 into a swooping, fifty-mile-long bike lane with the ...

... the idea any more... Us girls thus headed into the stadium to see the guys come through and the bulls finish their run... We were told that two cannons were to go off. The first to inform the runners and spectators that the bulls' gates had been opened and the second to let them know that all the bulls had now cleared the pens and were heading down the road. Even before the first canon had gone off there were a couple of idiots coming through ...