The streets of old town Pamplona were bustling with people as we headed back to our aubergue at 9:00 last night. This morning there were only the street cleaners to witness our departure from this unique city. We couldn't even find an open panaderia to get a morning coffee and roll. So on we went to start our day, hoping we would come upon an eatery somewhere in our early travels.
As we departed the city, we walked past a park with beautifully planted flower beds - such a great collaboration of colors to bid us farewell.
It was three and a half miles and we were beginning to think we were going to be withered persons lying alongside the path from lack of food when we finally discovered a panaderia sign. By then we were so hungry we ordered two pastries and 5 medialunas (small glazed croissants) to go with our coffee.
Our purgatory, if you can call it that, of walking through the outskirts of Pamplona was well rewarded with the beautiful countryside outside of the city. The rolling hill landscape was frequented with yellow canola fields intermixed with green. The path had also gone from concrete to soothing dirt. It was here that we came upon Elaine, a fellow bunkmate in Zubiri. She shared her frustration with feeling the walk through Pamplona with all it's busyness was so contrary to the spirit of the Camino. We full-heartedly agreed with her and were pleased to be back on the path outside the city.
 |
| Canola Fields |
Our journey today started with many adjustment stops. Adjustments to backpack straps and belts, adjustments to clothing, add rain gear and rain covers for a short burst of rain and most all-consuming, adjustments to my boots. I was still having problems with the top of my left boot rubbing against my ankle bone. I had brought some Dr. Schools heel inserts with a removable donut hole and thought perhaps just adding that would raise my foot up enough to prevent the rubbing. All that seemed to do was put added pressure on the balls of my feet. A brilliant idea came to me though - to remove the donut and insert the heel pad into my sock by my ankle providing a cushion from the boot. It worked!
I was very glad for that because the next section of the path was a rather arduous uphill climb over rocks, not quite to the level of those manuevered so adeptly by mountain goat, but close. At the top of the hill was a line of wind turbines. They were like giant sentinels welcoming us to victory at the top. Also there was an iron monument to the pilgrims of the Camino. We had seen pictures of this in some of the books we read so it was pretty cool to actually see it. We rewarded ourselves for our accomplishment by sharing a Leffe beer and a bag of M&M's. Yes, there was a road to the top and someone had conveniently set up a little stand with refreshments, including beer.
 |
| Pilgrim Monument |
I must mention that we have seen at least one butterfly each day of our journey, well except for the windy one up the Pyrenees and no self respecting butterfly would have subjected themselves to such certain death by flying that day.
Of course going to the mountain top means you must go down so down we went, again over rocky terrain. Once down, we had a delightful walk to where we had decided to end our day's journey - Obano. Again we were walking past fields of canola and now also fields of peas.
One last climb to our albergue and we were pooped. But would you believe after a quick beer and some chips we were refreshed enough to walk another three miles round trip to visit a church, Iglesia Santa Maria de Eunate. It was an octagonal structure that was built in the 1100's and believed to be a refuge for pilgrims on the Camino.
 |
| Iglesia Santa Maria de Eunate |
We arrived back to the village in time to attend a short prayer service at the chapel and join fellow pilgrims for a peregrino meal at the bar/restaurant. Wonderful food and even more wonderful conversation and campanionship with people from France, Germany, Brazil and Denmark. One gentleman was walking with his little daschund dog - crazy.
Lesson for the day: Sometimes things are better used for something other than for what they were created.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment