Day 10 Nájera

Last nights stay was in a church basement with a couple dozen other pelegrínos.  It included  a communal dinner  of wine, salad, lentil soup, pasta, and fresh peaches for dessert.     A light breakfast awaited us in the morning.   After dinner we were invited to a brief pilgrim service in the chapel.  The cost for this was a voluntary donation. I dropped in roughly what I would have paid in a private albergue.

Tonight I landed in a municipal albergue with hundreds of bunks packed together and no meals.  It is also donativo.  I donated accordingly. 

The above is a ruin of hospital for pilgrims established in 1185.  Wonder what the going rate was then.

I’ve entered the La Rioja region famous for its wine.  Kind of the Napa Valley of Spain. 

I walked for several miles along side this fence which was covered with makeshift crosses weaved in the chainlinks by passing pilgrims.  They were made from sticks, blades of tall grass, bits of plastic, what ever could be scrounged nearby. 

Another pilgrim tradition is to leave a small pile of stones in various places along the way.  Some bring stones from home just for this purpose. To some, they represent cares or worries left behind.   There are a few places that are special and thus collect lots of stones.  Every so often the local authorities have to clear the area with heavy equipment.  Ancient traditions are hard on the infrastructure. 

Today I met a family from Tasmania at a rest area along the way. The women was wearing sandals because her feet had painful blisters that were aggravated by her boots.  The time I spent in REI getting the right kind and size of boots as well as the training miles ahead of departure is paying off now I think.

Beun Camino

-jgp