June 4, 2013

This morning, we left Los Arcos after a great breakfast at our Monaco Hotel!  We decided not to walk as far as Logroňo, but to go 18 km (between 10 and 11 miles) to Viana. It was quite an arduous walk—a lot of uphill and steep downhills, too. Often we paralleled the highway and I really wished we could stay on the highway, which looked much easier.  There’s a lovely young French family that we see every day—a mother, a dad, 2 small sons and a baby girl.  They’re on bikes, with the baby behind the dad’s bike in a carrier.  The little boys do fine, but it sometimes takes both parents to push up the dad’s bike (with baby), especially on the steep hills.  I helped the mom with her bike briefly, because she looked exhausted!  She was so grateful.

                When we got to Viana, we looked for a Pensión with a “double bedroom with bathroom, una habitación doble con baño” our standard request in Spanish. The Pension is a lot cheaper than a Hotel, usually (in this case, 40Ԑ instead of 70Ԑ). The room is O.K., but the Monaco Hotel yesterday was much better!  We went to Mass in the lovely church (it was a funeral) and had a wonderful lamb dinner at the hotel.