Nothing wrong with a nice hotel

A Camino rumor several days ago, was that a French hiking and biking group had poured over 400 pilgrims onto the Camino and we would all have to scurry for rooms and it does seem as though the room situation has proven to be more difficult.  We came into Logrono, the capital of the famous wine-growing region of La Rioja.  The stone arched bridge leading into the city had lots of padlocks attached to the railing with names inscribed.  We were told that those are of lovers who have crossed there and this will “lock” their love together.  Of course, Jerry immediately asked about what happened to the lock when the people fell out of love!  Because it is the end of a long stretch of the Camino with few another options and because it is such an interesting city, it is a favorite stop on the Camino making beds a premium.  We were told there were no beds available in the alburgues so the Pilgrim information office make us a reservation at a small hotel.  However when we arrived there was no one there.  Several people on the street were kind enough to call them, but no answer.  So after a very exasperating wait, we headed off to find something else.  I will not detail our search, suffice to say, we walked as much throughout the town as we did getting there. However, we did find a very nice hotel in the center of all the night life and they even agreed to give us the pilgrim discount and believe me, we were two happy campers.  We probably looked like we were ready to assault them so they decided to let us stay.  Exhausted but relieved that we were not going to sleep on the stone floor of the Cathedral which had been graciously offered to us. We later found out that 18 people slept in the park!

Modern Interruption of a Pilgrim