Vive el Ebro - Episode III

Logroño-Arrubal-Logroño

Found my camera, yeah!

Today is my saint day, July 16th, I hopped on the bike this morning, but a series of unfortunate events forced me to stay at behind at the Poli; and since we are staying here another night, I took the oportunity to do some laundry and enjoy some great conversations with akin people. Marisa, the MD from Santander, with whom we shared laughter and stories, left behind a paper with a beuatiful fairy legend of how the Delta was formed, as she is going home today, with hopes to rejoin the group further down river, and she did not find the right moment to read the story, so she left me in charge to pass it along; which I will do later this evening.

La leyenda de las hadas del Ebro

Around 6pm a group of us made it to a nearby swimming pool to cool off, and later at 8pm to the embarcadero to see aspectacular show, super energetic, funny and involved group of Batukada. I was mesmerized.

Later, around 10pm, we made our way to a small street downtown, “Calle de los Baños”, to the center of the CNT, the local anarchist group, who invited us to a delicious vegan dinner; each individual had to serve him/herself, clean your own dish and cup, and store your chair when done. After dinner the same space, that was actually an old theatre, became the evening entertaint, with a very unique group of musicians, the drums were all made from recycled parts (frying pan, empty containers, etc), and their music was versatile: punk, rock, flamenco, pop, etc; and the performance was hilarious and fun.

Logroño-Lodosa-Calahorra (64kms)

Morning light rain, Iosu (Ibai’s dad, who left due to his injuries) came with me in the van, because the steering on his bike is broken and since today is Sunday, he can’t find anything open. I don’t want to miss the visit to the Würth Museum, that the group did yesterday morning; so we head out there, followed by Maria Antonia who also missed it, as she hurt her wrist and has decided to head back home to Valladolid, where at 63 has an organic vineyard, struggling to bottle her wine.

Würth is a very popular hardware manufacturer (nuts and bolts), who has an extensive collection, and much like the Getty Family, believe art should be available to everyone, so it is also free admission, they even have a free shuttle to Logroño.

I’m told the exhibits change, they have one area where they displays chronologicaly, one piece of each year the company has been in business since 1930 to date. I was in awe of the entire visit, both the building which is next to the factory, in an industrial area, and the exhibit are fabulous.

We said goodbye to Maria Antonia and made our way to Lodosa, where the town had prepared a delicious stew picnic by the river. Lodosa is known to be the world capital of the bell pepper, pimiento.

After lunch the cyclists moved on to Calahorra, the vegetable capital, while the support vehicles at Iosu’s request made way to Sartaguda, also known as the widow town, where Franco killed all men of all ages and buried the on the side of the road, brutalizing women, some of which also died; and till very recently were these families allowed to dig up their bones and give them proper burials and build a memorial in their honor. They were killed because the church didn’t like free-thinkers, as all working class whether farmers or factory workers were anarchists in nature when the facists began the civil war. Being there was terribly sad, I had goosepumps and tears.

In Calahorra, we all enjoyed dinner at the youth hostel, provided by Guillermo, the local ecologista member. After dinner half of the group left to the next small town as there were not enough beds for everyone.

Calahorra-Rincon de Soto-Alfaro (38kms)

The cyclists followed Guillermo for a tour of the organic produce farms.

Iosu went to the local bike store to get his bike fixed.

Nerea hopped on the van with me, and we followed Annelies to the next stop, Rincon de Soto, known for it’s pears.

Next to Alfaro, currently celebrating it’s baroque festival, by the time we get to the “polideportivo”, Nuria and Patxopa are cooking up a delicious organic meal for lunch.

Jordi and I went for iced coffee at the town square, observing the fabulous cathedral, we were surprised to see storks all over the roofs. The town people tell me they are there all year but for one month when most, not all leave.

In the evening we all take off for critical mass, Wilbur follows on foot; and stopping to talk to town folk, who are wonderfully receptive; one woman asks if we can stop in Castejon, where 3 power plants are located; I assure her we will; another elderly woman wants to know if she can be of help, and offers two spare beds in her home; I assure her we are well taken care of.

We all climb up to the vista point for a better look at the storks, where Carlos (Bruno and Violet’s dad) gives us a bit of background on stork behaviour; white storks , like the ones we are seeing are group birds, while black storks are loners that stay by the river beds. Concha tells us how they came up with the idea to place supports for the nests, as the weight, up to 500kgs, as they build over the old nests, was becoming a problem for the church roof.

After dinner, a few of us went to visit the Miniature Bicycle Museum, located inside an asador restaurant. I told the owner about an old newspaper article that my grandfather showed me, from 1931, where my grandmother Adela was mentioned as this first woman to compete in a cycling race. He asked if I could send him a copy for the museum, but sadly that was stolen and lost along with the rest of my heritage by my mother’s evil sister.

I have to say though, my grandmother hated riding bikes, think how bikes used to be, wooden seats, no suspension or gears; but she did it to please my grandfather.


been working on my photo album