Four Days of Rest (JULY 16, 2015)

July 15 thru 18 Logroño and Burgos

First a postscript to my blog on Estella to Villamayor de Monjardín. I was so busy waxing philosophical about my great spiritual lessons, I forgot to tell you about my experience at the wine fountain in Irache. First I bashed into the iron gate trying to get through the gate to the wine fountain and cut up my arm. Imagine how it would be if I actually drank wine. hehe Then I was trying to take a comic shot that would look like I just drank directly from the fountain, but the darn thing was leaking. Then I was thinking about how much wine was being wasted with those drips. Then the smell hit me. Oh, Lordy! I had to be very careful none of those drips landed in my mouth. I had visions of Leea having to pull me off the fountain. But I made it through the adventure with my 31 years still intact and only a bloody arm. The scabs are almost gone. 

Ok, the postscript is done. We are in Burgos now. We walked to Logroño and spent two nights there and today we took a bus to Burgos. This will give Leea's feet almost five complete days of rest. Also, she was able to use the two days to get her legs and feet massaged twice.  

The last time I stayed in Logroño in 2012 I didn't eat see anything because I was spending five days sitting on my bum hoping my knee would heal so I could go on. I only left the Albergue to go to the market to get ice or frozen peas for my knee. My knee got better and I got to go on. So this time while Leea was resting I got to wander around. Logroño is really a lovely city. And the old part of the city is full of people strolling or sitting outdoors having a drink and tapas, chatting with friends or family. 

People often ask what portions one could skip if they have time constraints. A lot of people advise to skip the Meseta, but for me, that would be a mistake, because as I'm looking at places I realize I don't want to miss a lot of places on the Meseta. They are some of my favorite places.  What I realized today is that if I had to skip, I would prefer to skip a lot of what we went by today from Logroño to Burgos, specifically Najera to Belorado. A good portion of this section of the Camino runs right next to a busy highway. The bus was close enough to pilgrims for us to see their facial expressions. 

Well, enough for tonight. More tomorrow. I will leave you with this image taken from the window in our room.  

T