Had a bit of a sore head after our night with the two Germans in Torres del Rio so we were a little slow getting started today. Last night there was plenty of talk about meeting on the Calle de Laurel in Logrono for tapas/pintos tonight but at this stage I didn't feel I could face another glass of wine for a couple of days. After a couple of km walking we began to feel a little brighter. See...feeling pretty positive here!

Wasn't a long day so we took our time, stopping to take lots of photos.

You can see in the pics the weather had started to get overcast, it was still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts but no sun. To be honest, I'm not great in the heat so I was happy with this. 

Today we walked through Viana which had another pretty amazing Church. Stopped here for some sight-seeing and coffee. 

After Viana I had to attend to my blisters....damn you soft feet! I always get them, but a couple of compeeds and, on a bad day, a paracetemol and you're feeling good before you know it. Next year though I am definitely going to spend some time toughening up my feet before I go - barefoot for the summer, that should go down well with customers in the shop....

 As you walk on from Viana you are in the Rioja region...wine yummy! You cross over a big highway and spend a couple of kms near this road.

Logrono is a biggish city. About 150k people live here. The Camino enters the main part of Logrono over the impressive “Bridge of Stone".

Here you go, here's us blocking the view of the bridge. 

 We were staying in a hostal just over the bridge and up a couple of streets. It was called Check in Rioja. We got a double room (shared bathroom) for €40 which was good value. It was clean and bright and perfect for our needs.

We then headed off to explore Logrono which is a really nice city. Sat in a little square outside the Cathedral de Santa Maria de la Redonda, got joined by a fella who seemed a little worse for wear from a lifetime of drug abuse, he had very little English and our Spanish is poor but he was keen to chat....and chat....and chat. He tried talking soccer to Phil, but Phil's more of a rugby man but they persevered.  Cut to an hour later and the owner of the cafe was not happy about his hapless guest so we moseyed on. Poor guy, didn't seem to have had much luck in life. 

We had a lovely evening wandering around Logrono enjoying tapas on the Calle de Laurel. Kept an eye out for the German lads but no sign so a heavy thunderstorm sent us scuttling for our beds at 11pm.

Longest day of our trip, about 32km but we were pretty excited about the wine fountain “Fuente del Vino” at the Monastery of Nuestra Senora la Real de Irache. Yup, free wine fountain! Granted it was 9am when we reached it so we weren't too psyched about drinking wine at that time but we gave it a go...we're good like that (and yes that is a bottle in my hand that we filled up for a tipple later!).

We walked on to Azquata which is a lovely hill-top village. Had some brekkie there, standard fair of Tortilla, bread and coffee...perfect.  

It's a long haul from Azquata to Los Arcos, a lot of the guidebooks say there is nowhere to get water or food on this stretch but when we were there an entrepreneuring person had set up a little cart about halfway through this 10km stretch.  This section is nice and flat, surrounded by pretty countryside. 

Los Arcos was our lunch-stop. It seems like a nice town so if you didn't fancy a 32km day you could easily stop here for the day and I think most people do.  Our reason for driving on to Torres del Rio was the hostel we had booked had a pool and we were dying for a dip!

After lunch, we walked on to Torres del Rio. The miles got eaten up as we chatted to a nice couple from San Francisco (she had written a book about a maid of Emily Dickenson who was from Tipperary, so she'd visited Ireland before..interesting!) and before we knew it we had reached Torres del Rio. We were staying in Hostal Rural San Andres and I'd highly recommend it. The village itself is tiny but lovely, a handful of Hostals all of which also serve dinner. 

The rooms in the Hostal are lovely but we immediately headed for the pool and had a dip - fab. Met two lovely guys from Germany who we joined for dinner and whom proved to be excellent company. 

Gear note: Shoe wise Phil and I both wore Columbia Conspiracy Outdry Hiking Shoes. They are nice and light. I got the odd blister but Phil was fine, I'm prone to blisters anyway so I can't blame it on the shoes, more likely my wimpy feet were the cause.

One of our shorter days walking. We left Puenta la Reina early to avoid the heat of yesterday. The walk through Puenta la Reina is lovely. Lot's of lovely doors, you just want a peep inside!

Walking out of Puenta la Reina you cross the Pilgrim's Bridge. 

Outside of Puenta la Reina you reach the first and only major hill of the day. It's about 1.5km uphill but with fresh legs you'll power up in no time. 

The first village you reach is called Maneru, we stopped here for coffee. We then walked on to Cirauqui where we visited the Church of San Roman, which was fab and well worth a visit. The grandeur of the churches in these small villages throughout Spain is pretty incredible. 

All day we walked through gorgeous rolling country-side, crossing small bridges into which we dipped our hot feet. This pic was taken outside Lorca, River Salado. 

We wandered on through Lorca and Villatuerta. Passed some pretty cool Sunflowers...Phil was a fan. 

Reached Estella at around lunchtime and just as a massive thunderstorm started to hit. Our hotel for the night Hotel Yerri, Estella, was another 1.5km walk from the entrance to the town (to be honest it's a bit of a haul to get there but we found out after we left that they run a shuttle bus to and from the Camino route...although that's kind of cheating isn't it?). We took shelter in a little bar and had a lovely lunch, reading our books and watching the lightening. Then pulled on our water-proofs and started to hoof it to the hotel. 

The hotel is nice and clean, wifi etc but as I said above, a little far off the Camino. That night we walked around Estella, found a crappy restaurant, had a not very nice dinner but enjoyed ourselves none the less. Day 2 done and dusted.

Gear Note: We're both wearing Icebreaker Merino Wool Tech Tees. Merino wool can be worn for days without getting smelly. Highly recommend them.

Round two ding ding! Last year we had our first foray on the Camino, in four days we walked from St Jean in France to Puenta la Reina in Spain and we absolutely loved it. So this year we decided to go back for more. Also, so many of our customers are walking it that we wanted to make sure we knew what we were talking about when selling them gear!

Last year we finished up in Puenta la Reina. This year we flew out of Dublin on a 7.00am flight, arrived into Bilbao at 10am, made our way from Bilbao Airport into Bilbao Bus Station. We'd booked a bus (www.busbud.com) from Bilbao to Pamplona at 11.45am and we made that with time to spare. It was a very easy and straightforward trip. 

We arrived into Pamplona at 2pm. I fished a map out of a bin (classy bird!) and realised that the Camino route was only a couple of blocks away - score! Filled up with water (only 1 litre between the two of us...not enough!) and we were on our merry way. Promptly walked 2km in the wrong direction...damn you map but after turning ourselves around we eventually found the familiar Camino markers. 

Now, setting off in 34 degrees heat with half a litre of water each is a bit stupid but we clearly remembered from last year that there was a shop in a town called Cizur Menor 5km outside of Pamplona.  We tramped out of Pamplona, happily spotting the familiar sights of the University grounds as we retraced our steps from last year.  

When we got to Cizur Menor the shop was closed....no water! Dum dum dum. Still, it was only another 5km to the next town of Zariquiegui. It was all uphill, now it's not particularly steep but in the heat and without enough water it was tough. 

I won't go into the full details of my moaning and groaning as we went up that hill, I won't tell you that my hands started to swell into lobster hands in the heat - my Irish blood is not good in the heat....suffice to say Phil was very patient with me and he dragged me up in a pleasant manner!  

 We eventually reached the little town of Zariquiegui, 10km outside of Pamplona. There we joined other late Afternoon Peregrinos who all agreed it was mad being out in the heat. We'd stopped in a little Albergue that served food and most other folks were calling it a day here and staying for the night. After a bite to eat and a delicious glass of wine we were raring for road again.

One last haul up the top of the pass and you arrive at a bunch of statues of Peregrinos. Stopped here for some pics ....

It was now around 5pm and we had roughly 11km to go, most of it was down-hill. We trucked along merrily, walking through a couple of little towns - Uterga, Murazabel and Obanos but we didn't dilly dally...there was a cold beer with our name on it in Puenta La Reina.

Arrived into Puenta La Reina at around 7pm. Now, we are definitely not hard-core Peregrinos, last year we tried out the Albergues but this year we figured we'd opt for private rooms where we could. We also booked ahead, the Camino is pretty busy in early September. We stayed in Hotel Jakue, the first place you reach on your way into Puenta La Reina. It's lovely (we'd stayed there last year) and they do a good value buffet (serve until 10pm but try and get in before 9.30pm as they start tidying stuff away around then). 

So day one down. Gear working well so far. We especially love our bags. Both of us are carrying Lowe Alpine Trek Plus 35:45L (the girl version is 33:40L)