snow!

As threatened, Saturday arrived in Navarrete with snow, driving horizonatally into our faces, but luckily without settling on the path. Furthermore the stage had no villages to stop at so we had 19km with no shelter apart from a tunnel under a road, where we recovered our energy with cakes and dried fruit. Luckily the snow stopped, and following Najera we made quick progress on to Azofra to a luxurious albergue looked after by a man who also ran a wine celler(a bodegero , what more could you expect in the Rioja). In the evening we prepared a salad together with 3 Basques and a couple from Valencia following which the "bodegero" appeared with 3 bottles of his wine for us to try...a gesture not greatly appreciated by a German pilgrim who protested at 10-00 that he was being kept awake by our revelry...the "bodegero"solved by closing the door conecting the kitchen room from the sleeping quarters "if he protests again, I ll find him a room up on the 3rd floor" as he opened another bottle of tinto.

It must have been good wine, because we all slept like logs(apart from the unfortunate German) and with no lasting effects the next morning.

Today the snow had given way to rain, but the strong wind remained, but we made good progress on through Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where I caught up with Kevin an Irishman, Sean from Australia and a Korean with a name I have difficulty pronouncing and less idea how to write. The weather at this stage had cleared up with sunshine, turning into a pleasant afternoon, and given that we were all feeling fine this, coupled with the threat of more rain tomorrow , encouraged us to continue on to Belorado.