Day 11-13 Two long days and a rest… 

Day 11 – Sept 16, 2022 – Villamayor de Monjardin to Torres del Rio (19.84 km)

When all that’s around you for hours are manure covered fields and gravel roads, you welcome a crate bench to rest your feet and eat the “second breakfast” you’ve been carrying since it before dawn. From perfectly placed benches to a musician at our Albergue playing a hand pan and sound bowls after communal dinner to help us sleep, magic along the Camino today was plentiful. 

Day 12 – Sept 17, 2022 – Torres del Rio to Logroño (20.2 km)

Today was grueling. We’ve learned two back-to-back 20 km days are too much for us at this point and our feet are protesting loudly. 

It started out well enough, and we made it to the summit of our first major hill of the day just in time to see the sunrise break the horizon. It was breathtaking. As we climbed, there were messages on the ground and benches here and there. I was happy to have the inspiration to keep going. I just wish the messages continued. As we grew tired, the messages and benches disappeared (apparently no one else had the energy to write them anymore at this stage of the hike either). I wish we had more of that much needed motivation closer to the end. We dragged our tired asses into Logroño over several kilometers of paved roads (we HATE walking on paved roads) at 4p and immediately fell into bed quickly fell fast asleep.  After our well-earned siesta, we went in search of painkillers (cervezas and vino) to quiet our throbbing feet. 

This weekend Logroño was having a fiesta celebrating the city’s birthday.  Wine seemed to be a central theme. The fountains sprayed pink water, there were crafts, concerts and people everywhere dressed in white shirts and red bandanas tied around their necks. Many of the young people had their shirts stained pink from an apparent “wine fight” earlier in the day. 

The celebrations continued into the evening with kids enthusiastically chasing each other and throwing a never ending number of “poppers” on the ground. As our tired bones were settling in for bed at 9p, a marching band started a procession down our street playing loudly. They repeated this again at 10:30p, but after we inserted the ear plugs and closed our eyes we didn’t hear anything else and slept hard until 8a. 

Day 13 – Sept 18, 2022 – Logroño (0 km)

Today was a planned rest day and it was so needed.  We had chores to get done (laundry), reservations to make for the coming week, and resting to do. 

We found a laundromat and a young lady who spoke English was leaving just as we arrived. She couldn’t use the detergent she bought and gifted it to us. More Camino magic. We were excited to wash and dry our clothes in actual MACHINES today. What a delight to not have to hand wash and dry today!

The rest of the day we spent making phone calls to loved ones taking advantage of good WiFi, and watched a movie while we gave our feet and legs the rest they badly needed.