Day 11 – Logroño to Nájera

35.9 km ~ 50,386 steps

Song of the Day: Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey 

Back on the trail today! We exchanged the endless wheat fields for the wine country of La Rioja region of Spain. Absolutely beautiful. Maverick was playing with sticks and seeming to love life back on the trail. As we made our way by a reservoir he almost caught a duck though so that was a no-no. Luckily, no wildlife was harmed in the walking of our camino today. Though we did come across countless snails. Seriously, what is with the snails in this country??

Maverick with his favorite snail of the day
Welcome to wine country

We met a lovely older gentleman from Bilbao, Txema, who walked with us for quite a while and who we ended up meeting up with again at the end of the day.

Entering Ventosa

I had planned to do a shorter day and stop in Ventosa at a place I had been told allowed dogs, but to my dismay they denied this and turned us away. With a thunderstorm rolling in, I didn’t want to pitch the tent for the night so I decided we would push on to Nájera. Luckily, we met a por of Irish girls, Beth and Amy, just as we started on this last 11 km stretch and we walked with them the whole way to Nájera, making it seem not so endless of a walk while you chat with friends.

An albergue called Las Peñas supposedly allowed dogs here, but they told me Maverick would have to stay out in the patio for the night. I wasn’t willing to part with him so the girls and I took a seat on the sidewalk as I decided what to do now. We had already tried every other albergue in town so I was running out of options. Finally, our friend Txema from this morning came out as he was staying here as well and said he had talked to the people of the albergue and they were willing to make an exception if the girls wanted to stay in a room with Maverick and I. And so we were able to stay together in a makeshift double room they set up for three and had a great night.

We all went out for dinner together after showering and I was able to try some typical Riojan food – some roasted potatoes and then fish stuffed peppers which were delicious! All and all, a good first day back from our hiatus.