Spain, Logroño & on the road, day 4

Day 5 was sort of our transition day. We'd be leaving Vitoria to go to San Sebastian & thought we'd pass by Logroño (the 2nd area I served in on my mission).
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Logroño lies in the providence of La Rioja. La Rioja is world renowned for their wine. We knew we were entering La Rioja when we began seeing all sorts of acreage covered with vineyards!
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We stopped at a Bodega. I swear, every time we'd go back to our car, we would be shocked once again at how tiny it was. Serious, it was the size of a golf cart! No wonder we got some many stares. 
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On the way to Logrono, my husband spotted what he thought looked like a Roman bridge. He was right! So we took our little smart car (who we had now name Bruto) for a little off roading to further investigate.
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Initially we took the wrong road. View from there. :)
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But ultimately we found our way.
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Logroño.
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Logroño lies on the Camino de Santiago (I think the interpretation is St. James path??). Basically, the Camino de Santiago goes from one end of Northern Spain to the other, ending in the Catedral de Santiago, which is near Portugual. It is said that by completing this walk, one receives forgiveness of sins for 7 years...
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...maybe walking a little bit of the Camino de Santiago got us 1 day's worth of forgiveness?? :)
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Doner Kebab!  A food on my list of "foods to eat while in Spain". 
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We ate lunch in this park. I frequented this park many times during my 4 1/2 months in Logroño.
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Beautiful Catedral in Casco Viejo.
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Gran Via. Walked this street many times. In fact, this was the route to the church.
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Our apartment was here. We lived above a bakery (oh how torturous were the days when we were fasting!)...and some sort of office (accounting maybe??). I know this because one time my companion or me (I can't remember who) was hanging some unmentionables out to dry outside our window...and they fell below to the offices' window! Yikes! Talk about embarrassing going down to ask for those!
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The hottest months of my mission were spent in Logroño, so you can imagine that we frequented this drinking fountain A LOT!
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Some government buildings that we passed frequently & would occasionally use for our bathroom needs. In fact, one time I was accidentally locked into one of these bathrooms alone with a security guard. I remember panicking. Not only had I unintentionally broken a mission rule to never leave your companion, but now I was locked into a bathroom with a man with a gun! Lucky for me, he was a nice security guard with no malintent. Phew.
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After leaving Logroño, our intent was to make our way to Pamploña (the city famous for the running of the bulls). However, my husband got sidetracked when he saw this! (see the ruins of a castle on the top of the mountain?)
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Of coarse, we had to go off roading in our little smart car once again! The views were breathtaking.
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What a trooper little Bruto was being making his way up a mountainside.
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Did I mention that we took the wrong turn in getting to the castle? If I hadn't be pacified by the beautiful views, Chad would've had a crazy woman on his hands! I had all sorts of visions of us getting stuck in the mud on some remote mountain! (Although, in hindsight, I bet we could've easily pushed it out).  Castillo Monjardín. 
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Last stop, Pamploño! But...we were both getting tired...and it was getting late...& we really hadn't done much research on what to see there. (I'd only been there once.) So we bailed & decided to just head straight for San Sebastian! Our room.
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And another gorgeous view!
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Stay tuned to hear about the adventures in San Sebastian!

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