May 29, today was a 29 kl walk through some of the prettiest scenery we have been through. Most of the day was in forest and mountain sides, not much to tell other than we got in early afternoon , found the Albergue in a village called Larrasoana. Its good to have the ol' paper sheets and pillow slips back, for that privilege ,1 euro extra.
 Everyone at the hostel is tired and seemed to find the supermercado, I'm guessing because everyone has a bottle of wine. The WiFi is so slow here that I tried to download two pictures, went to the wine store in town, came back, and finally sent them, at this rate, by the time I finish this blog I won't bee Abel two spell propaly.

This sign took me by surprise, two days in and I still have 800 kl to go, I have either been walking backwards in the dark, or I'm still in the bar thinking I'm walking............?
Again, a day of beauty, this region of Spain is so green and quiet and charming. Every village I walk through the people say hi to pilgrims and make sure we are on the right trail, having said that , I did have to double back a kilometer today,  I was talking to a Belgium guy and we both waltzed on by a Way marker and got lost for 5 milutes.

The guy I missed the sign with was from Belgium, his name is Gum, and that's pronounced Gum. I passed him on an uphill, and he says " you walk very fast, I see you yesterday"  I said I do, but depends on what I have on my mind at the time. Turns out he walked from his house in a village in Belgium outside Brussels, when he was lost in the Arden Forests, he ran into another guy from his same village, who he had never met, who was lost too, and walking to Santiago. This walk is so full of stories, and what's great, everyone shares.

so, outside in the courtyard where we are overnighting,its getting noisy, someone needs to be responsible and go talk to these guys,, that would be me, , right,,,I'll send photos.tomorrow of how that worked out. We get to and go through Pamplona tomorrow, where in the late 70s I ran with the bulls, I'd like to do that again on July 7th, but my enthusiasm isn't as great as it was then. go figure... Huh!

So, the noise outside is on the rise, the WiFi is slow, so I'm going to take one photo out there and I'll let you guess how the evening turned out.

Zb

Phew! Long day.

We cooked at the Albergue last night, then sat around and chatted to the other pilgrims. Was a lot of fun with all the languages going at once. Some are only doing a part of the pilgrimage each year, keep coming back each year till its done.
We headed for Pamplona today, but my plan was to walk around the old city of Pamplona, eat some Pincho' s, and keep moving. Tomorrow is long and has a 750 meter climb near the start. I covered an extra ,12 kilometers today so that I could shorten tomorrow a bit, but more importantly, I will hit the climb early before the sun gets high and the heat starts to boil. The temps today were the hottest we have had, and a long dirt road climb to this village of Zariquiegui was a bear.

The day started with a long riverside trail which criss crossed the water constantly, till we got close to Pamplona

we are walking out of the mountains now, starting to wind our way through wheat fields and farmland

All over Spain, one gets Tapas, which are small food treats mostly of dried ham etc, but in Pamplona, and most of northern Spain, they have Pincho' s, which are small elaborate ,tasty, fancy sandwiches. I stopped in Pamplona for a few pincho' s as I can't miss that, walked around old town and moved on. Its a great place, but I was here in the 70' s during the festival of San Vermin, when I ran with the bulls during the celebration. I remember it being scary dangerous then, and I'm not that keen to try my luck again. The festival is on in 5 weeks.

                                       Pinchos,,smoked salmon, tomato,brie cheese, carmalized onions

                           Pinchos,,cured ham,cheese wheel,some herbs,dressing

leaving Pamplona we came across a street festival parade ,celebrating some children's day as the town gets ready for the running of the bulls in a few weeks.

took an hour just to walk out of Pamplona on city streets, felt great to get back onto the dirt path and  through the wheat fields again.

On up the hill to our night stop, and was I glad to get in, filled up with water and had a cold shower, and not by choice.

this is the bell tower in the town we are in tonight, very pretty village with one albergue, a tiny shop for supplies, and that's about it.

Pilgrim meal at the albergue tonight and off to bed by 8 pm

Up and at em at 6am, was a chilly morning but we knew we had a climb right off the bat. 6 of us at the start. Cresting the mountain we came to the famous wrought iron depictions of the pilgrims facing west and into the wind, with the inscription "where the Way of the wind crosses the Way of the stars" . we reached this landmark just as the sun was climbing above the mountains behind, and what a spectacular scene it was

.yesterday, taking a stroll through the village, I came across a fountain Fuentes Reniega. The story goes, a dying pilgrim arrived and asked another pilgrim who was standing there, who was the devil disguised, to show him some water, the devil agreed but only if this dying pilgrim would renounce god. He refused to do so, then St James appeared and showed the pilgrim where this spring was, he then fed him water from a clam shell..this is where the Clam Shell became the insignia for all pilgrimages. Pilgrims carry shells on their bags, the way signs along the pilgrimage are clam shells as well, it is known that the early pilgrim carried clam shells to use as drinking vessels then anyway.

Drinking from the fountain
Today was a 35 km walk, quite difficult because it was mostly rocky underfoot, and very hot.
Coming into Puente LA Reina, it was really peaceful in the valley, and great views looking towards the village

La Reina is quaint, I had to stop and have a coffee and pastry to rest the feet and fill up the water bladder. People take a lot of pride in their homes, and flowers seem to be everywhere

Leaving LA Reina we crossed the Queens Bridge, built in medieval times by the queen to give safer passage to the pilgrims 500 years ago

The virgin Mary, and a monument to another fallen pilgrim, just before the town of Lorca

And this farmer needs to get more serious about his crops.

Storks in Spain are protected, and apparently its good luck when one nests on your house, really really bad luck if you remove the nest. This guy found a chimney, all I can say is, if that were my factory, and it was in production, we would have boiled eggs up there, or Storks with a smokers cough

We are in the town of Estella, about 14,000 people, for the night. A 800 meter climb tomorrow morning, so early up again.
Pretty place on a river, I just hope it has great restaurants with traditional foods

Tomorrow,expect an early glass of wine,,like at 7am, but I'll explain that to you later

Estella to Los ARCO's,,20km.
 Not a long day, but time to give the feet an easy day. The only problem I'm having is the broken toe, but I can live with that. I have a twinge  in my left knee, have has that for two weeks but its not any worse. Left late this morning, 7 am, which was lucky as I ran into two young Americans who we have crossed paths with a number of times,Matt and Jason.  Matt's knee has started to fail him so he is hobbling along and hopes to get a brace in a town ahead.
                                          A few images of Estella

This monastery was built in the 11th century by Benedictine Monks, was the first pilgrim hospital on the Way, but was abandoned in 1985. It a majestic place, and for the life of me,I can't get my head around the idea of abandoning this place, its so tragic to see it falling into ruin, and the vines are taking it over.

so, back to the " wine isn't just for breakfast anymore" . it was thought back in the old days, that pilgrims would not have the fortitude or strength to reach Santiago without wine, and the monks in this area would feed the pilgrims wine for free. At the Bodegas Irache monastery, the tradition remains, and today at about 7.30am we came across the Fuentes De Vino, "fountain of wine", where red wine still flows free for pilgrims. A bit early for me, but I had my gatorade bottle
I am sipping my take of the free wine as I write this this evening,,not bad.

hiking into a village called Azqueta

 I met an old man  named Pablito De Las Varas, he had a round stone about 2 ft across, that was in his family for about 80 years. It was a pilgrimage relic they had found ,and had the cross of San Tiago on one side, and the Maltese cross on the other side. Was so neat to actually see this,  as i had seen it in a photo when doing my research on the trip,and its a very famous part of the history of the Way. He then presented me with a self made pilgrim stick. I feel so fortunateand honored, and I don't really like hiking with sticks, but today I embraced the challenges as it was given for a reason, and I'm getting used to it

maybe I look like I need the help ,but in the villages, the people have been so kind, and so respect that you would come here to do this pilgrimage in their country. Sometimes my heart feels like it will burst ,as a human, I think we would do well to progress backwards in time.

Today was one of great scenery, vistas across the wheat fields, and looking out towards the Sierra de Urbasa ,and the cliffs.

I am happy, the Way is pointing me forward.

Long day, lucky the sky was a little cloudy, gave us some respite from the heat. Left really early as we knew we had a haul today, and tomorrow for that fact. Out the door at 5.45 and into the country.It was a full moon this morning, so was easier to see the Way markers this early.

 On leaving the town, we passed the village church and it seemed so desolate at this time of the day ,but it had this presence about it with all the lights on and the iridescent skies behind it.

the sun started to rise at about 7am and we headed for the village of Viana, at the 3.5 hour mark, which is a long start for the day, I dived into a bakery for coffee and a pastry.

These shots were taken while sitting at a cafe having coffee. This is the town  hall in the Plaza de Los Fuero

From here its on to Longrono, this is the capital of the LA Rioja region of Spain,and renowned for its wine production. It sits on the river Rio Ebro, which surprisingly, is also Spain's largest river

As we entered the town, we came to the pilgrim fountain, after a hot day and lots of asphalt walking, my feet were a little toasty, so couldn't help myself but drop my feet in the cold water

twenty minutes later, there was the USA,Germany , England, France ,Italy and the canary islands, all babbling on about todays section of the Camino

I walked into town for a late lunch after checking in at the Albergue, seems the storks don't discriminate  when picking nest sights, this nest had babies

tomorrow is 31 km but hot and flat, to Najera, an old Roman stronghold.