Silken Ciudad De Vitoria Vitoria-Gasteiz

... didn't experience on this visit.

In La Rioja tourism is developing rapidly, but its still not at the levels on other parts of Spain. Go before it becomes so !

I hope that if you are considering visiting this area this blog has been of some help, and if not that you enjoyed reading it anyway. My next trip is to the celebrations in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, but thats short so its probably next year before I blog again.

... founded in 1873.

We have of course had some great food here as well. Local delicacies such as potatoes with chorizo, bean stew, baked lamb and stuffed peppers. One of the excellent meals was at the Remulleri winery. Last night was a fun tapas and pintxos crawl in Haro, which allowed me to introduce my American companions to the joys of Jamon Bellota.

All in all days spent visiting wineries followed by a great lunches in this beautiful landscape are ...

... Arriving about an hour later at the top of a winding, steep road at the entrance to Urbasa-Andia National Park, I parked my car and set off on trek through the park’s huge beech forest and rocky paths.

The temperature was wonderful (likely upper 70s to mid 60s) from the base of my hike to the peak of Mt. Urbasa (about a 650 foot vertical increase over approx 6 kilometers), where I stopped to take in the views of the Barranca valley below and enjoy a lunch of nuts, chocolate ...

We arrived to Logroņo in June 29th at 15h, as we did the first day of our pilgrimage, we decided to walk a few kms to Navarrete, we missed so much that landscapes!!! like having homesick from the Camino or something like that!
This part of the pilgrimage is algo ...

... cities in the Camino, we visited the whole city in a few hours cuz is a little bit small. We finished our first walking week in this city so we made a farewell party in c/Laurel, the most famous street in Logroņo, many people get drunk that day... i don't know how they felt for walking the day after that party...
We will come back in my next free week to continue the camino from Logroņo to Burgos...

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)

... people bring down their backpack's weight to around 8kg, I seem to be stuck around 14 or 15. Too much, anyway. The afternoon sun is hot like hell, I'm tired because lack of sleep, everything hurts. Tomorrow I'm going to take a day off. I hope that resting one day will help my limbs recover. Best thing about the refuge today: it's called Casa de Austria, operated by Austrian hospitaleros and they promised real Austrian dark bread for tomorrow's breakfast. So looking forward to that!

It sure is hot here in Spain in the summer. Yesterday I walked a piddling 19kms to the pretty town of Viana. Many of my fellow pilgrims walked another 9kms on to Logrono but I went there last time so I decided to try somewhere new. The shorter distance was only a minor consideration, honest. I'm glad I stayed actually, because the albergue was right next to some grand church ruins and there was a lovely terrace overlooking ...

... easy to see why. I first visited Pamplona 10 years ago and hung out, drank and partied with a bunch of young guys in their first jobs or just out of university. They'd been to secondary and some of them primary school together and most still lived at home. On subsequent visits to the Pamplona, I've noticed the signs of age and maturity in the gang, they drink a little less, faces acquire lines, waistlines expand, political ragings about Euskal Heria have calmed and ...

... of the way of the people AND finally bulls that were heading on in there direction. The bulls ran right across the arena and were closed off at the other end, at which point the gates to the arena were closed and the runners who were in were in and those on the outside were left just there... on the outside... Younger bulls were set free one by one in the arena to have a bit of fun with the runners in the middle... but I reckon when you're ...