"Waiting for the sun" Logrono to Belorado

The very basic things in life become very important on this sort of excursion. What´s the weather going to do, where am I going to sleep, how hilly is the next bit etc. But always the conversation turns to feet. We had breakfast with a nice American lady and she had a Masters in Linguistics, as has Irv and in which I have an interest. After a few minutes on the topic of lingusitics we´d reverted to the feet conversation. The good news is that Irv´s feet are good and we´ve picked the pace up. Irv is now the blister guru of the Camino and his purchases of medical aids for his feet are reflating the Spanish economy. This is a shot of Irv´s feet in recovery mode so you can imagine them at their worst..

The weather is still a bit off and with not wanting to overdo the walking and put Irv´s feet back into A&E status we´ve done a few shortish walks (I´ve also started to get a pain in my right thight so I´ve been keen to give it a bit of recovery time). Logrono to Ventosa (about 13km) Ventosa to Azofra (about 17km) and Azofra to St Domingo (about 17km). We´re passing through the Rioja region so walking through vineyards with hills in distance and very pretty it is too (but cold).

We had a bit of sun in Azofra and sat in the courtyard of the hostel (2 bed-room a bit on the young offenders institution model but only 7 euros each) eating sarnies of sardine right out of the tin, cheese, rioja and oranges then sat with feet in the freezing cold little pool-fountain. Just like putting the feet in the pools at Pont Neath Vaughan. Five minutes and all feeling is gone. Lovely.

Last night we stayed at Santa Domingo. It was so cold we payed 5 Euro to have a look around the cathedral just to stay out of the wind. They´ve got a live rooster and chicken in a sort of gilded cage in the Cathedral in remembrance of a miracle that happened there. Seemed a bit odd for a lad brought up in the Methodist faith but there you go.

Today has been the best day. We have fallen behind but as the foot situation looked better we decided on an early start and by 11.30am (including two stops) we´d done 23km and were all set up in a double room in a posh hostel in Belorado. It even has a pool. I asked the lady if it was "caliente" and she said it was "muy caliente" but her smile told me it was anything but. We walked in sunshine and to mark the change in weather we swapped our normal elevenses of coffee, a Spanish brandy and a codeine tablet for a beer and a tablet. It makes us go like the roadrunner for about 2 hours. We hope to do the same sort of distances for the next two days then have a break in Burgos.