After the last two days the 20km today was almost like a rest day. You still have to do the hard yards though. The first section passed more vineyards and slowly climbed up to the village of Azofra. Here we had our obligatory cafe negro and bought our patata omelette bocodillo to eat later for lunch.

Today we achieved a milestone. Somewhere we passed our 200km walked mark, about one quarter of the way to Santiago. We are not sure where as we do a few of the optional extra walks.

From there we were on a wide country track passing through gently undulating farmland. The vineyards had given way to crops. For the first time there were many tractors working in the fields and passing us on the track. The wild flowers have almost all gone and there were very few poppies today. Maybe it’s because the fields were ploughed close to the track and where not there was an irrigation channel along the track. Today we saw hops being grown on there elaborate framework. Near the end of the day we passed an enormous warehouse with hundreds of crates stacked outside. Each crate about a metre cubed and full of patatas.

The second village we came to was interesting for a surprising reason. Ciruena has a population of 100 but accommodation for about 5000. The housing is all brand new, quite up market condominiums. But all empty and with many “sevende”, for sale, signs. There is an exclusive golf course, a large outdoor swimming pool and children’s playgrounds. This place was developed, in the middle of nowhere, as a resort but the “crisis economica” of Spain since 2008 killed it. The golf club now even allows pilgrims into the bar.

The track today was a long, long climb to Ciruena and a long decent to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The track was very straight with only a few subtle changes in direction. It was all out in the open with very little shade and few drinking fountains. You could count the number of trees on one hand.

Saint Dominic dedicated his life to improving the route for pilgrims in the eleventh century. He built roads and bridges, a pilgrim hospital and a church. The church evolved over seven centuries to become the present cathedral. The tomb of St Dominic is in a chapel in the cathedral. In the cathedral there is a coop containing a live cock and hen.

Legend has it that a pilgrim couple and their son stopped at an inn here. The innkeeper’s daughter fancied the handsome lad but he rejected her advances. Incensed by his refusal she hid a goblet in his rucksack and reported him for stealing. The lad was caught and condemned to hang. The parents continued to Santiago and on their return found their son still on the gibbet and still alive. St Dominic had intervened to keep him alive. The parents rushed to inform the city official that their son was alive. The official who was roasting chicken for dinner scoffed at the news, retorting that their son was as alive as his roasted chickens. Whereupon the chickens stood up, crowed loudly and flew away. The miracle was not lost on the official who pardoned and freed the lad. The chickens in the cathedral today are descendants of the roasted chickens.

So many legends, so many miracles. It all happens on the Camino.

Ipod theme song of the day: Where have all the flowers gone? Peter, Paul and Mary.

Logrono is a rapidly growing university city of about 150,000. It took quite a while to walk through the frenzied morning traffic of the city centre and high rise residential areas before reaching a beautiful quiet green ribbon of a park that took us to the outskirts. There we went through Parque de la Grajera, a large reservoir and wildlife park. Lots of locals were out walking, jogging and cycling. We passed old men fishing the lake, walked through pine forest, a huge children’s play area and stopped at an excellent cafe (which had toilets – yeah).

Probably the highlight of the day was in the first town we came to, Navarette. The church of Iglesia de La Asuncion contains one of the most stunning Baroque retablos in Spain. The retablo is a screen behind the altar divided into columns and rows, each framing a carved figure. This retablo is huge and sumptuous with a profusion of gold gilding.

The renaissance church itself is amazing and Barbara was moved to pay twenty cents to light a tea candle for all the people she loved (not one each). So we hope at 9.38pm on Friday evening NZ time you felt the love.

Also at Navarette we were able to visit the cemetery. We have seen many cemeteries, located a short distance out side each town or village. They are surrounded by high walls and so far all have had locked gates. At Navarette the gate was ajar so we went in to take a peak. There was a Romanesque entrance with the capitals of the columns depicting scenes such as the hero Roland battling the giant Ferragut, St George slaying the Dragon, a pilgrim eating and drinking, and a pilgrim washing another’s hair. The grave stones and mausoleums were very elaborate and since the bursting of the housing bubble maybe worth more than some of the houses in the village.

Last night Paul excelled himself with his command of Spanish. Our hotel package includes breakfast every day and dinner every day except four. One of those was last night in Logrono. We went out at 7pm to look for food, absolutely starving, knowing bars and restaurants don’t start serving food till late. We couldn’t find anything, not even tapas bars. Finally saw a Burger King and settled for that. So “Dos Whoppers con Coca Cola por favor”. Well done Paul. I can tell you a Burger King Whopper in Logrono is exactly the same as one in Paraparaumu, and probably Timbuktu.

Yesterday and today were both 26km days and on both we did “optional scenic route” extras so probably 28kms each day. We are right into the rhythm of it now so 20km days are very comfortable. 25+ days we get tired at the end but recover overnight to be fresh for the next day. We swear Spanish kilometres are longer than kiwi kilometres, and the Spanish ones are elastic, they stretch longer as the day goes on.

Lovely cool weather for walking today. For the last hour there was a small amount of rain so we tried out our ponchos, just to be with the “in” crowd. We loved our ponchos, we are real peregrinos now. This is the first time we have used them since we bought them in Hobart. Thank you Mike and Tammy and Pippa and Charlie and Millie.

A fairly flat walk today and on excellent paths. The La Rioja region has rich red clay soil which looks great but when it gets wet it sticks to your boots like leeches. After the parks of this morning most of the day was through vineyards but for about an hour late in the day the path ran parallel to a busy motorway. The drone of the vehicles was unpleasant so it was here we took the extra scenic route to get out of earshot.

This morning found a panaderia that opened early so we could buy our lunch. Pizza today as a change from bread, and the usual apples and bananas. It was a grey morning and after about half an hour a light drizzle started. We held off putting on our rain jackets as long as possible but eventually gave in. Murphy wasn’t on the Camino today as one of his laws is that as soon as you get your jacket out and get it on, the rain stops.

The rain continued for about 4 hours but wasn’t so bad that you felt the dreaded cold trickle down your back or your shoes filling with water. The path became filled with a caravan of billowing tents as most people put on their ponchos. We didn’t think it was too bad and stuck with our jackets. The path became a bit muddy and sticky in places but most of the day it was excellent. We prefer walking in the rain rather than the blistering heat.

It was noticeable that all those wonderful hill towns that look so romantic and appealing in the bright sunlight look a bit dreary and drab in the mist and rain.

We haven’t seen our new best friends John and Carolyn for a couple of days but this morning we walked with an Irishman named Tom and his daughter Margaret. He was 76 and very sprightly, she couldn’t keep up with him. Talk about the Irish having the gift of the gab, you didn’t need to have much input to have half an hour of entertaining conversation. In reality more of a monologue.

There are a large number of different nationalities walking. The most numerous are the French, followed by Italians. Then a heap of other Europeans, Dutch, Swedish, Germans etc. Quite a number of Americans and Canadians and a few from South America; Brazilians, Columbians, Venezuelans and Argentinians. We have spoken to a number of Australians as well (just for the entertainment value) . There are asians and going by the flag patches on their packs they are mostly South Koreans. There are not many Spanish but apparently hoards of them join for the last 100km at Sarria. We learnt in St Jean Pied de Port there were at least two other kiwis but we haven’t seen them yet.

It is usual to great other pilgrims with a “buen camino” but from farmers or locals in the villages you get a “buenos dias” or an “hola”. The “buen caminos”  weren’t quite so chirpy today. Said more with a resigned sigh.

Two recent milestones. Yesterday we filled the first page of our Credencial, the Pilgrim’s Passport, with stamps. Today we completed one week of walking. We still can’t quite believe we are here and ask ourselves what the hell are doing walking all this way?

Today was a long stage with two short but very steep sections in and out of river valleys. We have left the Navarra region and entered the great wine – producing region of La Rioja. The fields of peas and asparagus have gone and now there are thousands of acres of vineyards and hundreds of acres of olive trees. We passed old stone “beehive” wine observation huts.

When the rain stopped we stopped to eat our pizza. The slabs were so big we could only eat half and saved the rest to eat later in the afternoon as entered today’s destination Logrono

Ipod theme song today in memory of Prince :

Purple rain, purple rain,
I only want to see you underneath the Purple rain.

The last of the Beatitudes :

Blessed are you pilgrim if on the way you meet yourself and gift yourself with time, without rushing, so as not to disregard the image in your heart.

Blessed are you pilgrim, if you discover that the “camino” holds a lot mjof silence, and the silence of prayer, and the prayer of meeting with the Father who is waiting for you.

Today was the first day we have felt we are getting into the rhythm of the Camino. Walking has become a subconscious activity. Like when breathing you don’t think of every breath, now the walking just happens without thinking about it.

The majority of today was on delightful natural paths through forest of Holm oak and pine trees, then through open country with vineyards on the left and peas and olive groves on the right. In the open the path was again lined with poppies, mostly red but also some orange and pink.

Soon after leaving Estella we came to one of the highlights of the day, the Bodegas Irache winery which has an ornate fountain built into the wall of the winery and right on our route. It is called Fuente del vino and has two taps, one with aqua, water, and the other vino tinto, red wine. Each day the winery makes 100 litres of wine available for pilgrims to fortify themselves with for the journey ahead. We only had a sip as it was still only 8.30 in the morning. The young ones empty their water bottles and fill them with wine planning on a fun day ahead. There is a web cam there so anyone who was awake could have seen us.

There was a bit of a climb up to Villamayor de Monjardin, a typical hill town with narrow streets radiating from the church. From here there was a great view down the valley we were about to descend. This was all out in the open with no protection from the sun but we were going into a mild head wind so that kept us cool. There are no villages in the valley but there is Cafe Movil, a mobile cafe set up to provide refreshments. We had freshly squeezed orange juice which was fantastic.

We meet up with and chat with a few people. Carolyn and John from Melbourne who we have seen since St Jean, a group of five friends from the north of England who are going as far as Burgos, Tom and Eileen from Philadelphia who are doing the same as us. There is a sort of etiquette that allows you to chat as long as you want and then without awkwardness or embarrassment just say we will see you later, and you walk ahead or drop behind or go into a cafe or whatever. A lot of people like to walk alone and only socialise at a cafe or albergue.

Barbara is continuing her good works. Yesterday Carolyn was complaining of corns so Barbara gave her some of her precious Wool-it. Today she found a hat on the path and raced ahead inquiring until she found the owner. She is now the lady of the water on the mountain, the bike mover of the turbines, the easing of the foot pain, and the provider of sun protection. She will be canonised long before we reach Santiago.

Ipod theme song for today is from Canned Heat:

I’m goin’ up the country, baby don’t you want to go,
I’m goin’ where I’ve never been before
I’m goin’ where the water tastes like wine