Step 8: Navarrete – Logroño (13 km)

Accum. height uphill: 47 m. Accum. height downhill: 175 m.

Navarrete: Km 0. The Farmer: Km 6,5. Logroño, Km 13.

We depart from the Albergue de Peregrinos, and go along Cruz street, which follows the curvature that constitutes the whole village around the hillock that crowns the town. We reach and cross the Burgos road, and go further looking for an asphalt trail that begins on our right after a curve.

We arrive at the ruins of the old pilgrims’ hostel of Saint John of Acre (1185). A sign indicates the location of the hospital church. A bridge enables us to cross the AP-68. We continue along the same trail that brings across a side road of Motorway A-12 towards Navarrete. We move ahead until we find the road to Burgos, which we take to our left.

After 250 m we can leave the road and go on to an asphalt trail that runs parallel to the road and enables us to avoid the pressure of the traffic. We continue to walk parallel to the road until it separates and makes us to go around bordering fields. We arrive at a building where roads cross: we must make the letter Z, first making a right angle to our right and after another 100 meters making another right angle this time to our left. We move along a dirt trail that winds and brings us to the artificial lake and to the Alto de la Granjera.

A bar and restaurant serves us generously. We continue straight on in the direction from which we came, until we find a dirt trail that skirts the lake. We take the trail on our right and enjoy the view of the lake. The arrows indicating the Camino de Santiago remind us that we are going “against the tide.” We reach a road that we are going to take towards our left, but only for 100 m, as far as the next bend. At that bend, we take the road straight in front of us, which is bordered by a neat row of trees.

A bridge brings us to the other side of the road and, after a little while, it brings us to the other side of the motorway through a tunnel. On the other side we continue to our right through a park until we reach the first street “Prado Viejo,” which we will take on the left and so enter Logroño.

We go up Prado Viejo street and reach the gran Avenida de Burgos, which we take to our right, and after 2 km, that will take us in a  straight line through Logroño. The name of the street changes to Calle del Marques de Murrieta, but not its direction. We go through the Gran Via de J. Carlos I and arrive at Plaza de los Alféreces Provisionales, and go down Los Portales street until we reach the cathedral of Santa Maria la Redonda (XV century), with its Baroque towers. We take Herrerias street to Travesia del Palacio street, which we take to our left. The pilgrims’ hostel is located just 100 m (200 m from the cathedral).