Unquestioning surrender to what the Camino has in store for me seemed to be the lesson of the day …

Logroño is a fairly large, busy city.  And it promised to be another beautiful spring day. 

At the first inviting cafe I had a cafe con leche to sharpen my wits to help me navigate my way out without getting lost, as the way markers were a little sketchy.  At one intersection, I crossed a road and turned right… A car came whizzing around the round-a-bout towards me beeping its horn madly… When I looked over, both people in the car were pointing in the opposite direction, I had turned the wrong way … Bless their hearts the Spanish are so kind to help out pilgrims whenever they can… Our large backpacks are a dead giveaway, I smiled and waved a gracias.

Two women shouldering equally large packs were right behind me and saw the whole incident, we all laughed about it, and fell in step with each other.  These two lovely souls were from Ireland.  We talked and walked our way to a beautiful lake at the top of a park pathway.  

I mentioned my plan to walk to Ventosa today, they were planning to keep going to Najera another 6.5 miles… I had seriously been considering trying to make it to Najera, and since we were enjoying ourselves so much I said “you know, I might just join you” as it’s easier to do the longer distances when walking with others.

We rounded a bend in the road (about 8 miles into the walk) and there was Navarette not far in the distance.

We were all in agreement that it was time for a cafe con leche… Eyleen consulted her book as we entered the town passing by a cafe that I would have stopped at… She was on a mission to find another one, so up, up, up we climbed on the highest street…at one point a Spanish woman leaned over gesturing in the direction we were headed and speaking in rapid Spanish….. Something about a beautiful church up ahead.  As we came to it I knew I had to go in and say a prayer for Cooper, they decided to go ahead and look for the cafe.

As I walked into the church, I may have murmured ‘holy shit’ under my breath… Oops!  The picture does not do it justice, the art/architecture at the whole front of the church was all gold, real gold plate… It was ‘take your breath away’ gorgeous.

I said my prayer, then turned to leave, and who was before me but Mary once again.  I smiled, stood before her and once again asked her to look over Cooper.

I left the church to go and look for my friends…you probably already know where this is going… Yup, nowhere to be found!  Where we had thought the cafe was stood a clothes store…

I searched for about 10 minutes, but knew after 2 that I was not going to find them.  I could only smile, as I knew then that I was not supposed to change my plans for today.  Surrender!

I sought out some food, as last nights dinner was a disaster (total miscommunication, happens quite frequently when you don’t speak the language… Go figure😄) and I was hungry.

On the road again…this time I fell into a sea of French pilgrims as we left the town… Just on the edge of town, I heard the unmistakeable clip clop of a horse, I turned to see a mirage, what I believe was a lippizzaner, (world renowned dressage horses).  Complete with some kind of brand on its hip, high stepping proudly.

Soon a retired pediatrician from England fell into step and started talking to me… Interesting woman, and we got to chat until it was time for me to turn off for my hotel.

Something happens to my body when I know I’m near the end of my walk for the day…my legs suddenly feel like lead, and that last kilometer seems to take forever…

I wandered around this very small town for a good ten minutes getting different directions from everyone I met before I found this gorgeous place.  So glad I decided to go for it tonight, and ever so happy that tonight’s dinner is salad “their speciality” and paella.