26 September, Day 5: Lorca - Pamplona

Distance: 73km


Another sunny day. Apart from the first day when we went down to SJPP, we've had wonderful weather, not very hot.

By seven, everyone started moving. We got ready, had our breakfast and by nine, went over to take out the bicycles. We had locked the bikes with our locks plus Oscar's new lock with combination; the problem was that we could not open the combination lock... The three of us struggled trying to open it and just before we were ready to take out the front wheels to see if we could release them, Oscar managed to open it.

Micael and Oscar worked a little more on the shifter and we took off by 9:30, following the empty road until Villatuerta, where we took the camino by the vineyards. We stopped at Estella to take some pictures of the Church of Santo Sepulcro.

Church of Santo Sepulcro, Estella

Estella

At a small shop, the owner prepared for us some bocadillos with sausage, cheese and garlic, yummy, which we packed and took with us to Irache (a place known for it monastery and its winery), were it was easy to locate the wine fountain, given the amount of people concentrated around the place, who turned out to be more tourists than pilgrims. While we had a mug of wine, a couple told us that there was a guided visit to the monastery (which is about to be converted into a Parador-hotel). We took with us another mug of wine and went to the park by the monastery where we sat and had our bocadillos.

Filling our mugs at the Irache wine fountain

There is a museum where we went in to ask if they'd keep an eye on the bicycles while we went on the visit, but we ended up missing it altogether, as got carried away chatting with the man of the museum and a Dutch lady , around 60 years old, who arrived in her very nice bicycle - though with little luggage - and she told us that she's come all the way from Holland, she rides her bicycle with the help of her GPS navigator, while her husband drives their camper ahead and chooses a campground where he waits for her with everything ready. As I turned to look at Micael, he immediately reacted: "don't even think of it!!"

We continued by the road, climbing up to Villamayor de Monjardín and then to Los Arcos, where we entered the church of Santa María, just when it was packed with people attending a wedding; the interesting thing was that there were just as many guests outside, already celebrating in the bar across the street.

Oscar got a passenger as we climbed to Villamayor

Again, by the road, we climbed to Torres de Río, passing the Ermita de la Virgen del Poyo and then down to Viana. As we were climbing, we caught up with three young English cyclists, who had stopped to rest on the side of the road.

From Viana, we took the camino and, just before reaching Logroño, we came across a minivan parked on the side of the Camino, where a kind Englishman was offering tea, coffee, lemonade and first aid to the pilgrims. We stopped and had a drink and chatted with him - he didn't speak a work of Spanish y he had never heard of such an exotic place as Costa Rica.

We had entered La Rioja province. Mmmmm.

Logroño, was in their last day of festival; we stopped to have an ice cream and walk a little around town. Then, went out following the bike lane by La Grajera park, very nice and then back to the road to Navarrete. The young Englishmen must have passed us while we had our ice cream and we caught up again with them as they were pushing their bikes in La Grajera. We passed them pedaling, with me behind and slow, and I had to smile when I overheard one of them saying "how embarrasing..." (these three middle aged cyclists felt very well!)

Logroño Cathedral

In Navarrete, we stopped by the municipal hostel, where there were only 4 places left, with preference to walking pilgrims, so we went then to a private hostel, El Cantaro, where we stored our bicycles in a garage next to a tractor (and didn't use Oscar's lock!), and they gave us a room with bathroom for the three of us, quite a luxury!

After a needed shower, we went to a shop to buy things for dinner, breakfast and lunch (next day was Sunday). We asked the cashier girl if she could suggest a nice Rioja wine and the said we should try "El Coto", adding that "if you don't like that wine, you don't like wine! "... (I'm glad to say that we did like it!).

Back at the hostel, Oscar took charge of preparing dinner of cannelloni, mixed veggies and "cayos a la madrileña", all with the help of the microwave.