Logroño

Logroño - city of weddings, or so it appears.   Arriving at the hostel, a burst of applause and shouting from the end of the street welcomes a couple out of the church; after the usual end-of-walk shower and change I stroll up to the main square and the same happens again, but this time it's the cathedral and they're off in a horse drawn carriage.

Logroño - also 163km in.  So that's just over 100 miles, and a tad more than a fifth of the way to Santiago. That has a good feel to it - and I'm hoping the feeling will persist after what will be a long day tomorrow due to the distances between towns...

But back to today;  well, back to yesterday evening, really.  Come and join us, said Tal, who was sitting with a group who had wine - and I did: turned out she'd confused me with someone else...   But good conversations, and then a communal dinner, so much to be thankful for.  And perhaps especially Heather, from Australia, who has lost her husband: 'walking to learn to be me, instead of we', she said, and it's very true.   Not that we want, or intend, to leave the 'we' behind...

So today, up and off in the belief that the Albergue didn't do breakfast - then 100 yards later find that they do, in the upper floor cafe area!   There is Linda, who is Canadian, and whom I met at Biarritz airport, looking for a bus!  We seem to walk at much the same pace, so after coffee and something to eat, we start walking as the sun rises, and walk and talk all the way to Lograño.

 On the way we stopped at Viana for a coffee, and a look at the church (which, like the church in Beeston, is dedicated to the Assumption, but with several hundred years of advantage in decoration terms!).

And now I'm in Lograño, having a rest after meeting George and Denise (who shared a room with me and Florian in Villamayor) in the square for a beer - and all three booking forward for tomorrow night in Nàjera, which already looks quite full.  So 28km tomorrow - I'll hope to sleep well; sometime before that there will be food, and the Pilgrims' Mass in the Cathedral.