Surprising Logroño, Spain

After Madrid, we drove North to the town of Logroño. Our initial plan was to just spend the night in this town because we found a cheap hotel, 63 Euros/night, as compared to the 250 Euros+/night at hotels in Pamplona.

The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona during the week long Festival of San Fermin was made famous by Ernest Hemingway in his 1920's book "The Sun Also Rises." The problem for us was that the bulls run at 8:00 a.m. and we were dead tired from lack of sleep for the last 3 nights. To get a spot to see the bulls storm past us would require at least a 4:15 a.m. wake-up call.

We decided to postpone Pamplona until Wednesday for the sake of our health and just laze around Logrono, recharging our batteries.

At breakfast we spotted this sharp dressed
fellow sporting a traditional Spanish beret

Day 1 Casualty Report

On Monday's first day of the San Fermin Festival, 13 runners were reported as seriously injured. The bulls did none of the damage, it was the other runners while scrambling for their lives who did the damage.

First, we found Logroño to have a great park,
Parque del Ebro,
along the banks of the River Ebro.

Before our walk, Joe asked the young girl behind the registration desk at our hotel if this was Basque country. Her answer was an emphatic "NO!!!" 

He then asked her where Basque country could be found and she said across the River Ebro about 200 yards from our hotel!

They take their cultural pride very seriously in these parts!

We entered the church dedicated to San Santiago
and found richly carved wooden pews

Logrono also has a fascinating and huge
meat market in it's Mercado de Abastos

Pig Snouts, Anyone?

Laurie Finds Her Street...

... and a Taberna to go with it

La Taberna Laurel's Tapas Bar

The fact that the tapas were delicious, the wine good and the tab small may have influenced our grading of this establishment.

Old Spanish Proverb to Live By

"If you are having a beautiful day, watch and see how someone will come along to screw it up for you."

The Hustle and Bustle of Logroño Life

"One order of well done graffiti please."

You have to love this place!

They were closed for "Vaccaciones" otherwise we would have been all over this place.

Gelato in Spain?
NOW YOU"RE TALKING!!!

Don't panic my Sicilian friends, while quite refreshing at the time, it was HOT, the gelato was only average by our shared standards.

Pamplona tomorrow . . .

. . . Beautiful fountains today!

Logroño's Old City Wall and Gate

A cigar making machine

Logroño was a booming cigar making center back in the day. 

Tapestries in Logroño's
Parlamento Government House

Logroño's Escuela de Arte for the truly gifted

Crazy 'fridge, hope it catches on back home.

Big Bird, IS THAT YOU!!!

The branches used to make these birds nests all over Logrono are HUGE, so are the birds.

What if Marilyn Monroe ran with the bulls?

Signs of Royalty abounded!

Laurie and Joe for toasting tapas,

GOOD TIMES INDEED!

Good Spanish Beer . . .

. . . Colorful Graffiti

Logroño has it all!

Sex or a Pizza...What is Spain coming to!

Everybody knows that they don't serve much pizza in Spain!

Kids frolicking in the
Paseo Pricipe de Vergara park.

The Paseo Principe de Vergara is a well
designed park and a good people watching spot

Is that a puro, a.k.a., a Cuban?

A Monte Cristo #2 if you will!

La Torre

One of Logroño's Concatedral La Redonda's twin towers at dusk.

Tapas inspired dinner

Logroño by night

This is the Iglesia de San Bartolome.

Nazareth was our desk clerk and organized
our mad cap sprint through the town of Logroño

We were SO very pleasantly surprised by Logroño's charm and beauty. What a GREAT day we all had when we were really expecting nothing at all!

Spain will please you often in this way, you should really come and visit.