On the way out of Logroño I came upon a plaza with a huge chess board on the ground made from stone tiles with images of different cities along the Camino. Then just, past the Iglesias de Santiago which has a large sculpture in front depicting Santiago, not as the pilgrim, but as Matamoros, the Moor slayer or killer. It's part of the myth of Santiago who is said to have come back to help drive the Moors out of Spain. The Spanish view of Santiago is like a group schizophrenia, the peaceful pilgrim and the killer of Moors. The Moors by the way were basically Muslims from Morocco who had lived on the Iberian peninsula for a very long time until the church, that would be of the Catholic variety, decided only Catholics should be allowed to live on the Iberian pennisula. This meant not only an eviction of the Moors and protestants, but an eviction or murder of the Jews.
Once outside of the city I passed through a lovely ark and then came to a quiet cafe on a peaceful lake where I am having café con leche and Spanish tortilla. Carbs, sugar and caffeine for the rest if today's walk. lol This is such a comfortable spot, it is hard to make myself move on. If I hadn’t just sat on my buttocks for five days, it would be almost impossible to leave this idyllic rest stop.
The rest of the day's walk went pretty well. I did eight miles with only part of it in bearable pain, the rest free and clear. At one point I came to a fence where pilgrims had made crosses on the chain link fence. So I gathered some sticks and made a triangle. It some how just felt right. Hehehe
Then I came across one of these big black wooden bulls they have in the hills along freeways. I've seen hundreds of them in southern Spain, in Andalucia, because that is their symbol. I've never seen one this far north. After this there was a sign that said 576 km to Santiago. I think that is about 345 miles. i am making progress. It feels good.
On the way into Navarette there are the preserved ruins of a 12th century pilgrim albergue or “hospital”, as they were called in the 12th century. At that time they were a combination facility for medical care and a place to stay. I reached the municipal albergue at noon and waited for it to open at one, took my shower (Luke warm sprinkles of water),washed my clothes, and had a snack of my left over tortilla from this morning, some sheep cheese, olives and pan integral (wheat.) Now it is siesta time. There's not many of us here yet, just two young German girls and a French guy. Hopefully, I'll get to know them this evening.
This is the deadest town I have been in. There is no wifi in any of the bars or Internet cafe. Most of the bars and restaurants are closed. Very quiet. Maybe I'm supposed to be quiet. I just had my dinner on the menu del día. The first course was spaghetti (pasta has become more common in Spain) and second course was beef steak and french fries with ketchup. Spain now has ketchup. They used to give you something like tomato sauce if you asked for ketchup. In Spain meat is almost always a thin slice of of meat fried or roasted with spices. I don't think I've ever seen a big chunk of any kind of meat in spain. For desert I'm having coffee cake. All this for 12€ including a diet coke and bread. Bread is always served, unless you specifically tell them you don't want it. And there is usually a 1€ or 2€ per person charge for the bread. But bread is included with the "Pilgrim's menu" or "menu del dia" meals.. They just served my coffee cake desert and it looks like a mousse cake with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. And it is yummy.

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