Hello everyone,
 

All is well in Spain.  We walked a little over 11 miles today from Navarette to 

Najera with a nice break in Ventosa for breakfast.  It was a gloriously cloudy day

with quite a bit of wind and it felt great. The walk today could have been another 

scorcher for us without the wind and cloud cover.  We walked through miles of grape

vineyards, I almost called them orchards because there is an amazing similarity 

between the vineyards here and the orchards in Adams county.  There were wine coops,

and a few days ago workers in the field harvesting and even a John Deere tractor. 

I definitely took a photo of that. The grapes are delicious as it is nearly 

impossible to resist snagging a few as you walk by the abundance you see along

the path.   Last evening we had amazing tapas in a local Tapas bar on the Plaza. 

Octopus, a potato dish, rolled egg plant, mushrooms, and some great bread.  Later 

in the evening I decided to go to the pilgrims mass in the local church.  I am in 

awe of these small  village churches. It is obvious that the the villagers are very 

proud of their churches, and they have every reason to be.   Last night when I

walked  into the cathedral and they are all very old ,highly vaulted stone

cathedrals, I was stunned.  This little village housed an amazing array of 

artifacts and because the mass was a pilgrims mass , the priest gave us all a

blessing and took us back to the chambers where he gave us a personal tour of 

their most valued treasures.   The cathedral was a 16th Century church of the

Assumption.  Certainly not the oldest church we've seen , but the gold nave 

interior at the front of the church where the altar was located was breath

taking when illuminated.  There was a similiar church in Los Arcos with the 

gold interior and as striking as these are , it is the small simple churches 

that  I visit that have a quiet spirituality that has  as powerful an impact 

as the gilded ones.  I   love  the contrasts in this country.   We are staying 

in a lovely hostel with 9 beds all on the same plane read NO BUNK BEDS. 

It is clean spacious with sheets and towels and a great shower and bath tub.

We are very very lucky to get a space in this town.   The municipal alburgue 

is not known to be that great, but we just  heard it is full  Our place is now 

full with 2 men from Australia, one man from palm springs California  2 women 

from Canada one woman from Vienna and one woman from Germany and of course we 

2 Americans.