Last night’s stay in Viana was a good time. My bunk mate was Andre and we had a long chat before bed. Andre is a software engineer who has entered his midlife crisis. There has been consolidation in his industry with some of his best work being bought and, probably corrupted, by new management. I felt his pain. Sucks to pour your heart into applications only to see them treated as transient to be ignored or discarded when the new owners change direction.
Had breakfast with a German gal named Edith. She speaks German, French, Spanish, and English fluently, as far as I can tell. It is neat to watch her switch between all 4 during breakfast. I started calling her The Translator. I told her we had a plant named Edith that I will henceforth associate with her. She was a little confused, then, when she understood, just thought I was a strange.
Today is a short 10km walk. The sucky part was that the trail took a turn through some low lying fields which are soaked from rain. A very muddy walk for 1km or so. Until this point, I have not seen a long stretch of mud like this. The maintainers have done a fantastic job insuring the trail has good drainage and a solid gravel surface. Didn’t get a picture.
There is the wooden bridge over the highway that I stopped to admire. If you zoom in on the rails you can see the joinery on the rails these boys cut when they assembled it. Each one is custom and each fits together perfectly.
Entering Logrono, the river was running strong.
I bumped into Andre admiring this sign next to my hostel at 10am. Apparently these two serious looking guys discovered / isolated the element Wolfram (Tungsten) back in the 1700’s. I had listened the Werewolves of London song a few minutes earlier, so there you go.
Andre is all happy cuz he has an Airbnb tonight which includes all the luxuries we take for granted. Specifically, he seemed keen to have unlimited toilet access where he can read his newspaper undisturbed. It sounded wonderful.
Today I learned that arriving early in town does not mean I get any rest. The hostel door was closed, closed, closed. Meaning, I tried knocking, pressing buttons, leaving and returning, etc for like 2 hours. Instead, of dropping my pack and wondering the city in comfort, I humped this thing around till 1:00.
I checked out a little flea market that was getting setup. Some neat old stuff here.
Saw a big church with some interesting sculpture work. Check out the lady above the door standing on a pile of babies. I mean, there are babies to the left and right, she’s slinging one around with her left hand. Looks like a couple more are going to fall on her from the ceiling above.
I found the more modern side of the city and walked some wide boulevards filled with well dressed, fresh smelling people. It started drizzling again, I was hungry, so I ducked into a super fancy cafe and tried to sit in an isolated spot.
The gals working the tables tried to ignore me for as long as possible. Eventually they gave up, took my point-at-the-menu order. 5 minutes later I was served a huge plate of under cooked bacon-like stuff and 2 fried eggs, cooked just the way I hate them, all runny. I scarfed all that down and was promptly given the bill. The patrons seem relieved to see me go.
Joe turned up at 12 and I hung out with him until the Albergue opened. We got cleaned up and met a group of gals who we first encountered in Urdaniz. 3 of them are nurses and the other a pharma rep. Had topas, wine, and a lot of laughs. I still don’t know any of their names, haha