We stayed at the Pension Los Arcos, very close to where we stayed last time. Bed was comfortable but that was about it. Shower broken and turned the bathroom into a paddling pool and heating not turned on (either to warm us of dry our clothes).
The view from my room was so unremarkable that i forgot to take a photo. It was a very grey morning (rain threatened for later) but with one last look back (also a pretty uninspiring town) and a young calf ringing his bell, we set off on what would be a very long gravel path.
The Camino is so much quieter than 3 years ago, maybe the post-lockdown factor then had something to do with it. The weather was perfect for walking, overcast and not too cold (or hot) with rolling hills still visible all around us. There were a lot of olive tree groves, and the occasional almond tree, among the large fields of wheat as we walked towards Sansol. A lot of peregrinos stayed here last night as accommodation in Los Arcos is so limited – this would explain why we met so few walkers early on. From Sansol it is a steep hill down to a river and then back up to Torres del Rio (sixth photo) with a great view back up towards Sansol.
More of the same as we plodded on towards a coffee stop in Viana. The path was quite undulating – some severe, some gentle, as we started to see more evidence of approaching the Rioja region. A few fields were planted with Vetch – which is either used as a feedstuff supplement or as a crop to revitalise the nitrogen in the soil.
A couple of fields of very old vines and then a very muddy / wet path as the rain, which had help off until our coffee stop, now started to pelt down on us as we walked the last 7-8km into Logrono and crossed the River Ebro via the Puente de Piedra. The Logrono bullring is just visible in the last photo. The rain stopped for the final walk into the town, where we enjoyed a nice ice cream before checking into our hotel.
