We set the alarm nice and early this morning (7:30am) so that we could get the bus into Logroño. The great thing about being on a camp site is being able to use the showers. Whilst we have a shower in the van, it gets a bit cosy and uses up lots of precious water. Camp sites can be a bit hit and miss, with the worst having lukewarm water, buttons you have to press every 30 seconds and tiny cubicles. This site however is great – nice large cubicles with water as hot as you like for as long as you like. Simple pleasures 🙂
Once showered, and fed and watered, we set off for the bus stop in Navarrete, about a mile from the camp site. I love travelling by bus when I’m away as you get to see every day real life. Twenty minutes later and we were on the Gran Vía in Logroño. We quickly found the Casco Antiguo – or old town – and sorted ourselves out with a map from the tourist information office.
There’s not a huge amount to do in terms of sights or attractions, unless you like churches (which we don’t!), but there is a good museum which was well worth visiting (especially as it cost €0 to get in!) and just walking round the old town was good fun.
The food in Logroño seems to be a mixture of tapas dishes that you see across Spain, and pintxos that you would get in the Basque cities such as San Sebastian. In true Spanish ‘ir de tapas’ style, we went bar hopping across the foodie areas of town, trying the different foods and wines.
The only bad dish I picked today was Callos. I’d never heard of it before and didn’t have a clue what it was. It looked delicious – like pork with pancetta in a tomato sauce – but I knew straight away after the first mouthful that all was not as it seemed. It turned out to be veal tripe – yuk!
As expected, the city shut down at 2pm, so we went and sat in the square to enjoy the sunshine, which had finally burned away the morning fog. Carol read a book whilst I flicked through a couple of Spanish papers I’d bought. I used to speak Spanish at a lower intermediate level, but I haven’t had much opportunity until now to practise regularly, and there’s loads I’ve forgotten. We’ve only been in Spain for a week now, and it’s already starting to come back. Reading the papers is a good way of brushing up, but La Marca’s 17 pages on Real Madrid’s 3-1 Champions League win over Napoli was a little OTT!
At 5pm one or two bars re-opened, so we went for some more tapas and wine – no tripe this time – and then we had to make our way back to the bus stop to return to Navarrete and walk back to the camp site. Today’s photos are on Instagram.
Mike
Stop enjoying yourself so much, it’s not fair on the rest of us.
Hello both
You seem to have done so much in such a short space of time.
I love the photos and you both look so well! The nomadic life clearly agrees with you.
Dominic
x
Cheers Dominic, glad you’re enjoying the blog!