I woke up this morning to find out that the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors both won on Sunday as did Tiger Woods! The Giants are back in First place where they belong. And today is going to be a sunny day for our 20 mile hike to Najera.
The first thing we do in the morning is address our feet. This has become a rather intricate process of reapplying band aids, tape, compeed (a special application for blisters, then applying vasoline over the other parts of our feet. With all the colors of the various applications, and the colors of the feet themselves, our feet are beginning to look like some weird Salvador Dali painting......
We then venture out on the trail, leaving the beautiful city of Logrono. "Hola", "buenos Dias", and "Buen Camino" are common greetings on the trail, no matter where people come from.....with one glaring exception....."Bon Jour". Wtf? The French just refuse to go along with the rest of the world, even when they are in another country. I will address some French guy with a "buenos dia" and get a "Bon jour" back. Who does that?
As long as we are on this subject, the Northern Europeans (which includes Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, Fins, and particularly Germans) are friendly and efficient. Very friendly and respectful in their greetings, but very efficient in their walking. they are very fast and waste little time. The Spaniards and Italians are very friendly, warm and charming. The Asians (we have met people from Japan, China and Korera) are friendly but shy. And they stop to take pictures by loads. Almost always of scenery, without people in them.
After an easy 13 mile walk to Navarette, we stopped for a light lunch. Navarette is a beautiful ancient town.
Last month, my brother Bruce and I went to a terrific Dark Star Orchestra concert in San Francisco.Today I decided to listen to music for the first time on the walk. I played a 2 hour Grateful Dead set. I have to say, the music sounded terrific as we walked through beautiful Rioja vineyards.
One other funny note from today. As we were approaching a small bridge that we had to cross, we came upon a flock of sheep. It was a very interesting process to watch The shepherd and his four dogs keep the sheep in order as they crossed the small bridge. we were held up about 15 minute. Note in the picture how Linda conveniently put her finger over my face!
Our hotel today is probably the worst one we have stayed in, but it does have a healthy supply of hot water, so we are not complaining.
We have a rather short 13 mile walk to santo Doning de Calzada. This is apparently named after St Dominic, so I will be listening to a little Van Morrison, "St Dominic's Preview" today! Tonight, we are staying in our first Spanish Parador (a sort of upscale Hotel chain, using converted ancient buildings, sponsored by the Spanish gov't).
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