Day 7 - Estella to Los Arcos (22km)

It has been another day of green fields and yellow, red and blue flowers cut through by the white line of the Camino stretching ahead. Another day of feeling better along the route and wondering whether you are getting stronger, the terrain easier, or a combination of the two. But above all it was the day of the wine fountain. Seriously, there is a fountain on the walk that dispenses wine. It was about a kilometre out of town and has been provided by a local bodega since 1991 to 'continue the tradition of the Benedictine monks'. You can't help but like those monks! Naturally it is quite popular.

I arrived in our destination, Los Arcos, early afternoon. It is typical of the towns we seem to be coming across now: it is small, the cobbled streets are straight and narrow and the brown-stoned terraced buildings rise up either side, each with their own little balcony. There is a central plaza where you find the church which here seems to ring its bells incessantly, at least it did while we dined in the square. And inside, the church here is so ornate. Personally I find myself conflicted when I see something as decorated and as beautiful as this church in a tiny town of less than 1200 souls - and no doubt many fewer when it was built; the richness of the decoration - here stretched across every wall - stands in stark contrast for me with the poverty of those that would have built it and the community that it served. But putting that aside, you cannot help but admire its beauty.

                  

Tomorrow is a long day to the relatively large town of Logroño. At 30 kilometres, the route is almost half as much again as what I have been doing lately. So it is an early night tonight for an early start tomorrow in the hope we can get some distance under our feet before the sun gets too high in the sky.