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Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. – Ibn Battuta
Day 10 – Navarrete to Azofra – 14.2 Miles
May 27
Another Red Kite, I think 
A doting parent stork with at least one babe in the nest 
A group of students we have seen all day enjoying a local singer w/ a guitar. Gary with green pack 
E in serious wine country 
Really quiet on the trail today! No Pilgrims in sight 
New grape plants! And still no pilgrims behind us either!
Typical sign when leaving a town…red line through town you just left 
Cool wooden Camino directional 
Along the trail 
Why are Spanish STOP signs in English?? 
Camino directional 
Many new signs since were last on Camino in 2019 
Bright spray paint on road, can’t miss it! : ) 
Many different directionals on sidewalks
Elizabeth:
After walking 14+ miles from Navarrete to Azofra we called for a taxi at cafe’ Sevilla in Azofra for a ride to Granon where we booked two nights at Donde Cristina Casa Rural. We stayed here in 2019. We have our own room and bathroom upstairs. On street level there’s a kitchen (self serve breakfast included), living room, laundry and no one else here! Cristina takes care of her elder mom and doesn’t advertise online, Booking.com, etc. We found out about her in 2019 when we could not find a room and an owner of a café that we stopped at suggested we stay at Cristina’s new place.
We walked down to the only Café open in Granon for a 3:30pm main meal, visited the bakery shop when it reopened at 5pm, got laundry started, did journal writing, and took an evening walk. I attended the all Spanish Pilgrim Mass again tonight. Sure wish I knew what the priest was saying. His gestures, voice inflection and smiles indicated he was a good story teller! Gary hung out in the plaza and tried calling his mother with no luck. But he did have a fun conversation with his sister in Vermont. Then it was off to bed.
Pinon melon! Love them! Gary carried this 3lb honeydew-like melon 4 mi. to our stop for the night! 
Puppies! 
E’s dinner buddy! 
Gary’s dinner pal 
E’s vegetable stew…artichokes, brussels sprouts, hard boiled egg, and more! 
Granon church 
Granon church 
During the Pilgrim Mass 
Guiding his elder brother home from mass…soooo cute!, 
Granon, La Rioja region of Spain
Sunday May 28
Day 11 – Azofra to Granon – 13.4 miles
The taxi driver picked us up at 7:30AM. Dani (he), same cab driver that brought us to Granon from Azofra, took us back to Azofra. We then walked the 14 mi back to Granon. We didn’t skip any miles and we were able to stay two nights in the same place. And…I walked with a day pack only, leaving my big backpack at our Casa Rural (B & B) Donde Cristina in Granon!
Outside Azofra Spain, almost out of La Rioja wine region. 
How a canal crosses a road (underneath). E is taking a picture of the irrigation canal. 
The picture E was taking. 
The wheat fields are interspersed with the grapes. Here is a bird enjoying a tall weed. 
The last grape field. Over E’s head are more pilgrims (tiny black dots!). 
I know, more flower/bee shots! 
A shaded rest stop. Notice the drinking fountain on the left. 
Pilgrims in the distance
Coming into Santo Domingo, where we stopped for lunch. 
There is a lot of great art along The Way. 
More bees and flowers! : ) 
Shell shaped pastries with a walker at a Santo Domingo bakery. 
A local couple in Santo Domingo. Taken from the entrance to the church. 
E loves all the different shapes and sizes of doors in Spain. 
The Camino on the left. The bridge abutments have shells on them. 
The entrance to Granon. There is a yellow arrow on the curb indicating to go up the steps. 
Random thoughts:
1. We do not know how to do the accents on Spanish words on our phones and laptop so apologies if you do not know how to pronounce the town names or Spanish words that I use in our journal ; (
2. Light switches in restrooms and hallways all along the Camino turn off on/off their own. They are motion sensored. Great, except when you are “going” to the bathroom and it turns off, leaving you to sit in the dark or stand up doing “The Wave” like at a sporting event, raising your arms to motion the sensor to turn the light back on! The auto-off makes ecological sense though. In hotel rooms, like in many other countries…except in the US… you must place your room key card in a slot by the door to turn on the electricity in the room. The lights, AC, heat etc. will not work until the room key is in place. You take the when you leave and all electronics turn off. Smart!! We need to start this in the United States! Think of the electricity we could all safe!
3. Window shutters are of two types here, a) they are wooden and fold inward to latch, creating blackout in the bedroom. b) they are electric or manual, metal, roll down shades built into the outer side of the window sill. The metal rolls down – top to bottom – leaving light slats if you wish to keep some light coming in or you continue to pull them down and they seal closed for blackout shades. Very useful when it stays light until 10pm and we go to bed before that!
4. Use of a car horn is a positive thing here. We have seen this in other countries as well. I think the United States is the only place that when someone honks their horn, they are in a bad mood or so-called yelling at you. Here in Spain we see the bread delivery truck honking when it arrives in front of a home or someone will honk to say hello to a local on the street.
5. All the stop signs are in English. According to Google it is because the European Union wants to standard the universal language of English for everyone driving in all the different countries. The shape and bright red (same as in US) is universal.
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
– Henry Miller
Not all those who wander are lost.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
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