The Happy Pilgrim

The Camino has a way of providing lessons,  and while I am not exactly sure “navigating” was one I really needed between Logrono and Najera (walking in Friday 22 - out Saturday 23 May), it was the lesson that presented itself to me!  You know the feeling when something goes wrong at the start and it just continues on? Well, that was my experience. “Lost in Logrono”,  provided many laugh-out-loud moments which were just too quirky to keep to myself.

Leaving Los Arcos was fine and I walked by myself for part of the day. I stopped in at the free wine fountain in Irache. It was too early for me to have a red wine but I got my photo taken (like a tourist does) and kept moving forward. I had a brief chat to a man in his 70s from Germany and was super-vigilant about keeping my eyes peeled for the sign posts. I didn’t have Charlotte to keep me focussed and needed to focus myself.  Sometime in the early afternoon I ran into Naula and we started to walk together. It had been a quiet morning and I was grateful for the company. For a woman of 57 Nuala has a cracking pace and is a fabulous conversationalist.

Towards the end of our journey (nearing the city) we stopped at a little house and purchased some souvenirs from an old lady with four dogs (all on chains sadly but they were friendly). About 20 minutes earlier we had walked with Lars a short way and chatted, Lars (from Denmark) was at Orrisson the same time as I was.  Lars stopped for a  bit more of a chat and asked to have a photo of me to show his wife because I look like a friend of hers.. He’s 67 and enjoys posting photos of his journey on Facebook and I figured no harm and I would get one of us too. My vanity kicked in and I asked him how old was his wife’s friend, but he didn’t hear me or chose, politely not to say…. He didn’t do selfies (but I talked him round).

We all sat on our benches which were placed strategically for Pilgrims on either side of the little road in the shade and had a short break. We had spent some money at the roadside stall and figured it was a good place as any. Lars reviewed Nuala’s photos taken on his camera in the shade of the tree and laughed at how she had pressed multiple times and he had only wanted one photo of us (not 20!). We laughed and walked in to town and went our separate ways. Lars wanted food before he found a hotel, it had been a very long day and he wasn’t interested in an albergue!   I wanted to get into a bath and have some rest before exploring. Nuala’s hotel was right there in front of us as we crossed the bridge and not very far from the square. In my humble opinion, this is essential criteria for Pilgrim accommodation.

I took a long time to find my hotel (I should have picked up a better map) but I was too busy looking around that I went straight past the Tourist Information. If I hadn’t wandered into the old quarter I may have been able to work out the city better right from the start. About 40 minutes later I stumbled in (saw my luggage) and was relieved. There were two Pilgrims who obviously found the place better than me sitting there waiting for their luggage which unfortunately had been misplaced. Then two more Pilgrims walked in (a couple from Ireland) who had been at the same place as me in Los Arcos the day before.  They had also had  a lot of trouble finding the place which didn’t make me feel so silly.  We did have maps but it’s hard to find street names and the map provided didn’t have the town Cathedral as a reference point so I was disorientated. Also many maps don’t include those tiny little streets. So when something looks like three streets over you don’t always count those lane ways (apparently). My experience so far in Spain is that you meet the nicest people when you are lost and you’re not lost for long.

I found my way to the square easily that evening and after a lovely long warm bath met up with Suzzanne, Helen, Nuala and sisters Karin and Lucia. We had a Pilgrims menu served by a very cheeky man from Romania. He was entertaining and worked very hard to please us with wifi passwords, getting our menu right and bringing us endless bottles of red wine! Quite a treat really.  Helen left us earlier as she had a curfew on at her albergue and when all the Pilgrims left then local crowd rolled and started their late eating schedule. We were tired and headed out a bit later than usual around 11:00PM. I had found my navigation system and pointed out the direction of Nuala’s hotel and offered to walk Suzanne  home. We got a bit lost and confused but finally found Suzanne’s place but then I over shot my block and had to pop into a bar for more directions. I wasn’t far off but my compass was out and I was starting to get annoyed with Logrono! Time for a good sleep it had been a long day with all those extra kilometres.

After a delicious breakfast (including much-missed muesli) I wasted a lot of time getting out of town and despite the warning from the BrierIey guide I was “ill prepared?.  I left my clip off my mobile phone in the dinning room (only got to the lobby) so I went back for that. Then I discovered that the bottom half of my new Leki pole had dropped off (so I went back to my room to double check that), no luck there. I wondered through the city square and tried to pick up signs and Pilgrims but both were few and far between. I went past a bin and “unburdened” myself of my dysfunctional walking pole and decided that if I were to get another one I wouldn’t spend any more than 10Euros because I have so much bad luck with them so far. I only use them for the steep down hill descents  in slippery-muddy conditions. Mostly the stick is hanging off my back pack.

I got our my map and my maps.me app and proceeded out of the city (slowly). It was bike riding Pilgrims that gave me reassurance for the first part of the day, they zoomed by and called out “Beun Camino” which made me very happy.  I was heading out in the right direction but couldn’t see any Pilgrims. When I did see one it was for a short time and then I couldn’t catch them up. I must have been in a disreputable part of town but didn’t notice until a saw two cars (one red and one blue) parked “on” the corner as a crossed a street. They weren’t double parked they had no one in them but the were on that curved part. It made me smile and I really wanted to take a photo but the girl hanging out of the bar with two blokes beside her made me uneasy so I moved on.

About 700metres down the road two Spanish business men in a flash sports car stopped me and asked me for directions. The irony of that one hasn’t left me either. I offered them my map but they kindly declined (it wasn’t really helping me so someone may as well get some use from it!). I made it to the edge of town and saw the businessmen at a factory or distillery site so they had found their destination only 800metres down the road. By this time I had already walked about  3-4kms and was feeling anxious that I hadn’t seen a walking or riding Pilgrim for quite some time. I  saw a sign post to  Najera (La Rioja), it was one of those big freeway signs but no Camino signs. I found a nice man who was going for his morning walk in a park and asked him for directions. I had over-shot by one road which meant going back around a curved parkland in front of many high rise units. There are lots of those here in Spain. I needed to navigate  to get back under a freeway and cross the road. It was elevated and I could see Pilgrims there in the distance (boy was I happy!).

I had lost quite a bit of time and didn’t really reach the outskirts of town until around 10:00AM. There were less Pilgrims (due to the time of day) and the signs we less frequent and quite different to the ones I was used to since St Jean Pied de Port. I stumbled across Marcellino Lombato “El Peregino Pasante” he was stamping Pilgrim Passports in the parklands and this is where I found sufficient Pilgrims to stop worrying.  The first ones (again) were bike riders who probably don’t need to set off so early! I walked on and found my walking rhythm for the day ahead.

I found a bar in a small town and though I would grab something to eat and use the toilet. Bars in Spain aren't anything like the bars in Australia they serve food and often have children in them (even late at night). Sitting in the chairs outside were the two sisters from Holland (Karin and Lucia) I waved to them and headed inside to use the bathroom and order something to eat. I ran into Nuala who had just got there herself and she kindly invited me to get a bite to eat with her.. We rested and chatted a while and Nuala and I walked most of the way into town together. She stopped off in the park and I kept going, mindful that it’s nice to be with people but you don’t need to be with people all the time.

My day ended with a few more “lost” moments. The instructions were simple enough just over the bridge, stay on The Camino, it’s on your left. I asked a local waitress who didn’t have a clue, then a local well dressed lady (in her 70s), probably on her way to church, who sent me back across the bridge in the opposite direction. I knew this wasn’t right but I was too polite to ignore her. Then I met the hotel owner who was coincidentally in another bar across the bridge  who said “you can’t miss it” its 20metres from the bridge. By the time I tried again I was tired and decided to go into a shop. I asked a kind man in a hardware store. He walked out of his shop (left the door open) and walked with me around the corner (about 10 doors away) right to the front of the hotel. I thanked him warmly and shook his hand. He was my Camino blessing for the day.

Ran into Suzanne the next morning as I came out of my hotel. I walked a cracking pace with her to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. St Domingo was dedicated to helping Pilgrims. There is a quirky legend about keeping his legend alive with a rooster and a hen in the cathedral coop. Those interesed can google it. When I get home I may post a link but no time to be a historian.

The curse of the lost Pilgrim had lifted and the breeze felt nice on my smiling face.