Day 11

Greetings from Ciruena, Espana! Long day today as we are trying to get back on track to be in Leon by May 11, when our daughter Alecia will join us. We left Ventosa before 8:00am and fairly quickly walked six miles to the city of Najera, where we had breakfast overlooking a rapidly running river. We were able to take almost one hour to eat and visit with some pilgrims we know from England. Our next leg was just shy of four miles, and brought us to the small town of Azofra, were we ate lunch and again visited with other pilgrims that we have met over the past 11 days. Our final leg was six miles and a continuous – and sometimes steep – climb through beautiful vineyards with snow- capped mountains to the south. The heat did become a factor, and there was little relief from trees, which were few and far between. We finally arrived in Ciruena, which was unlike any town we had seen thus far. Entering from the east, we saw numerous real estate developments -mostly empty. They all appeared to be 10 years old and clear!y part of a real estate boom gone bad. There was also the first golf club on our route – very new building as well. Steve and I remarked that we hoped that BBVA has not been involved in the financing! Our albugue was on the west side of town, clearly much older. Very nice private rooms and a wonderful pilgrims dinner, tonight. PS Our Spanish is getting a little better, as many of the alburgues, particularly in small towns, are run by families with little understanding of English.