25 Sep 2023: Vianda

This was planned as a shorter day; at least that was my thinking at the time. Only 10.5km, the problem being that Logroño is another 9.5km, with no stop in between, which would be too long for me. That was, until I actually crossed the series of ridges, some with quite steep and treacherous descents. Somehow I’d managed to dodge the two previous guidebook-warned-as-dangerous descents (taxi day and bus day), so this is the first I’d actually had to deal with. Based on how my knees hurt, even going very slowly and carefully, I’ll try to avoid these stretches in the future as well.

I got an earlier start this morning, underway at 7:42. Even though the sun isn’t up yet, there’s plenty of light; I could even have made 7:30 work, I think. Here at the equinox, sunrise is several minutes later every day. My noisy dorm-mates made it impossible to stay asleep.

With the series of ridges, the views of rolling countryside from the crest were very pretty. The landscape is greener here than further East. Many vineyards too, and the grade harvest was in progress. They use mechanical harvesters to gathers the grapes, but it still takes human hands to trim the vines afterwards.

By the time I arrived in Vianda, just after 11, it was already warming up rapidly. The forecast looks dry and low 80’sF for most of the next two weeks. Having the heat of the day at 1 instead of 4 is just another reason for shorter days.

This is an old city, and like most in the area, has one main old street that is the pilgrim route. It’s very convenient to have all the necessary services concentrated nearby!

I’m in an actual hotel tonight, the first real hotel since landing in Europe two weeks ago. Nice surroundings are … nice!

Lodging: Hotel Palacio de Pujadas, Vianda