Saturday May 11 Los Arcos to Viana. 11 miles

As we were checking out the Los Arcos hotel this morning, Linda struck up a conversation with an elderly Priest who was visiting the hotel.  He asked Linda if we had seen the local church.  We replied that we had not, but we had heard the bells (more about that later).  He offered to take us on a tour.  How could we deny such an opportunity?  He quickly ran to the house of a neighbor to procure the key, and gave us a tour.  The church was amazingly ornate inside.  I said something like "the members must have ha a lot of money to build this church" to which he replied, "Or a lot of faith"!  He then went on to tell the story of the construction process used in the 14th century.  Instead of using water to mix with the cement, they used wine!  Apparently wine was much more plentiful than water.   He said there are 11 churches built in the world using this process.

For the past four night's, our hotel has been located right next to the village church. It makes for nice scenery, but can be sort of hard on a good night's sleep, as those damn bells go off at all hours of the night!

We walked a relatively short, but challenging 11 miles today.  As has been the case, we went through lots of vineyards olive groves,, grain fields, etc, with a smattering of beautiful flowers along the way.  After about 90 minutes, we stopped for morning coffee, and ran into the Australians again.  As it turns out, they are staying in the same hotel as us, and we will join them for dinner later this evening.  We were also fortunate at this stop the little store had red licorice, one of my favorite treats!

Later we spent time with an elderly Guy from Denmark. He told he has previously done this hike in the dead of winter, and most nights, he was the only person in the albergues (the cheap housing that many hikers use, more about  that in a separate post that I will do on housing).  After putting up with us for 5 minutes, he broke away and zipped to the next location.

Around 2:00, our feet were dragging as we neared our destination Viana.  An elderly guy from Germany quickly came upon us.  Linda said, "my, you are in a hurry."  He explained that he already walked 41 km (25 miles) that day, and he wanted to make sure he found a place to stay in Viana.  Wow, these old Europeans can walk fast and far.  15 minutes later, we passed him in Viana.  He had not been able to find a place, because the albergue was full.  So, he proceeded onward....

We fortunately,

had made reservations at a very nice hotel in Viana, which we checked into with no problem.  By the way, the room has a bidet in it.  We managed to use this first as a clothes washing machine, and later as a foot soaker!  We still haven't used it for which it was designed....

Linda continues to fight blisters and toenail issues on her left foot.   We are hopeful  this might heal, but one of the Australians, who is a Doctor, advised Linda that if it doesn't improve in the next day or two, she should see a Dr (!!) to get  oral antibiotics. So, we will keep our fingers crossed and continue to nurse the feet along.

  Viana, where we are today is the last city in the Navarre region.  We have greatly enjoyed this section of Spain, and would enjoy coming back to visit again.  Tomorrow, we enter the Rioja region, which is well known for its excellent wine.  We have an easy 7 mile walk into Logrono, the capital city of about 150,000.  We are hoping to have an afternoon