On our Camino de Santiago day 6, everyone in the Albergue decided to leave early in the morning, to try and beat the expected 40-degree heat. Unfortunately for us, our beds were beside the door (amateurs). The first person decided to leave at 4am and the rest started to leave soon after. We got up at 5am and left at 6am, just in time to start walking with the sunrise. The Camino is starting to make us realise that maybe we are a little bit lazy or not really an early risers.
The Municipal Albergue in Los Arcos was ok, it would have been better if we arrived earlier and got a better bed, this was our own fault.
The plan today was to stay with the suggested route. Walk from Los Arcos to Logrono, 29km. We knew the first village was about 1-hour walk away, we plan to walk there and get breakfast. Logrono is the capital city in the wine region of Rioja. We wanted to stay here to sample some of the wine and Tapas.
It was dusky when we started walking out of the Albergue at 06:00. We walked out of the town on a small road which eventually turned into a dust track about 1km in. The road to Sansol was good and wide with lots of room to walk and chat. We walked 3.5km and turned right off the track onto a smaller track.
The signpost here showed it was 3km to Sansol. The path to Sansol was nice and level with only a slight grade change near the approach to the town.
About 1.5km away from the town, the trail meets the main road and we walk on this until we see a one-man-wide path cutting across a cornfield.
We reached Sansol in 1 hour 30 minutes from Los Arcos
There was a small coffee shop in the middle of Sansol, we got some coffee and croissants for takeaway because everyone from Los Arcos Albergue was eating breakfast there and it was packed.
Torres del Rio is only 1km away and as we leave Sansol, we could see Torres del Rio on the other side of the river. We cross a new footbridge and walk through Torres del Rio without stopping.
Leaving Torres del Rio, we walk out of the village on a small gravel path for about 2 km, until we reach a road. We cross the road and walk back onto a gravel path on the other side. From here, the path is filled with stone stacks. After the stone stacks, we walk back down toward the road again and have to walk along a bad bend on the main road for about 200m (Care really needs to be taken here, the bends are very dangerous).
From the stone stacks, Viana is about 1 hour and 10 minutes away. We walk into Viana by passing more Vineyards on our left and then continue on a path on the side of the main road. It was now 10 O clock in the morning, the heat is starting to increase and we have just walked over 11.5km without any coffee breaks. Our first mission was to hunt down some refreshments and shade from the sun.
We sat outside of a coffee shop in the middle of the town square. The Camino walks straight past the church in the middle of the town. This is an amazing little square surrounding the church, filled with small shops and local people. We sat here admiring the church and the gorgeous scenery surrounding us.
We walked from Torres del Rio to Viana in 2 Hours 20 minutes
We left Viana after about 45 minutes. Leaving the town we continue straight down through the town until we reach another church. We then pass underneath an arch in the wall, which has a glass box of a holy statue inside of it. We walk downhill leaving the town by cutting through small alleys and roads. We eventually walk out of the town by walking on a small alleyway sandwiched between backyards and fields to the other side.
Most of the next section is on dust tracks cutting through vineyards. There was very little shade on this section of the Camino and the heat soared close to 40 degrees today. When we reached the footbridge going over the main road into Logrono, we taught we were close to the finish of today’s Camino.
We walk in toward Logrono, past some industrial estates to our right and keeping the main road on our left. We use specially designed pathways leading underneath and away from the main road and what eventually feels like bringing us further from the city until the path leads back down toward the main road again.
We cross the main road and follow it until we reach a bridge leading into the city centre. Just as we walk up the path there is a Pilgrim information centre. We go inside and get some accommodation advice and maps.
We reached Logrono and its only turned 1 o clock. The Municipal Albergue was the first Albergue that we stumbled across but it didn’t open until 2 pm and there was a large crowd waiting before us. We just sat in the courtyard and wait for our turn to get a bed for the night.
We walked from Viana to Lagrono in 2 hours 5 minutes
The Albergue was slightly overcrowded with very little privacy. The only places to charge the phone on our floor was in the bathroom. The bunk beds had dividers but they hardly had any standing room or even space to store our hiking bags. The shower facilities were good and the toilets were clean.
We went into the city to explore and visit the main Cathedral and kill some time until dinner. This area of Spain is famous for its tapas and wine, for dinner we walked to a street filled with tapas bars and we tried to stop in as many as our bellies could handle to taste all the works of art.
Every day on the Camino is different, in some way or form. Today’s landscape felt like it didn’t change and it didn’t matter how many corners we turned, it always felt like another field or another vineyard and they all looked the same. Maybe it was the long breaks between towns that made it feel like it was never changing but we needed to occupy our minds. This long section of walks gave us an opportunity to play games of “eye spy” and I can honestly say that we laughed for hours doing this and it was probably one of the funniest times we had for years. You cannot beat the old games.