Camino Diary Entry #17
Emails home from the Camino
#17 Najera 8 hours later
When you set out in the morning you try not to think about what little you know of the day ahead and avoid putting an estimated time on your arrival. To suggest at 8.10 this morning that we wouldn’t reach our destination until 4.30 that afternoon – just does really stupid stuff to your head. All you can do is remind yourself that so long as one foot goes in front of the other sooner or later you will arrive. And true to form we finally did.
It was impossible to bypass the ice cream shop as we entered the scruffier end of town en-route to the ‘old town’ where we are staying. We overindulged in limon gelato then crossed the bridge, only to meet Anna and Remi enjoying a beer! (They have succumbed to an unscheduled rest day due to bad blisters).
We checked in, enjoyed a cold beer and a wine with them and then headed off for food. All this exercise can give you a bit of an appetite.
It was a big night in Spain for the football fans and with the game of the night being against Italy, it was no easy thing to get anyone’s attention long enough to feed us. In desperation we accepted a quick starter salad while awaiting our pasta to be delivered during a lull in the game.
The ‘singing boys’ came by and we had a chat with the Padre – we even shared our uneaten bread.The Padre told of staying the previous night in a park behind the lovely cathedral we had visited in Navarette. All very well until the sprinklers started up at 5 am! They too were waiting for half time in the football so they could rally enough of an interested and generous crowd to entertain in the hope of earning sufficient donations to pay for tonight’s supper!
Back here in our room, we have received an email from our Logrono hotel to say my sock has been found (and I know you have read this far waiting in anticipation of hearing that) so there is much celebration and great optimism that it will catch up with us in the next few days.
Gwyneth has emerged from the bathroom – she always has ‘issues’ in there! Tonight she has turned something the wrong way and the front of her pj’s are now soaked. Worse still, she has decided to do a bunch of hand washing and is looking at my wardrobe for somewhere to hang it all.
This is the first time I have scored the wardrobe for myself and now she wants to hang her ‘smalls’ in there AND hog the luggage rack!
Gwyneth doesn’t know why this takes so long to write since all we did was the fiesta yesterday and walked in a big hot wind today – what more do you need to say?
I say they can delete it if they don’t want to read it!!
Only 23 kms tomorrow so Gwyneth is not feeling any pressing need to be organized – could be another late start!!