Cizor Menor to Puente la Reina - 8/13

(Distance: 19 kms  Time: 7 hours)
Before we post anything about our journey today, Betsy and I would like to wish Dad a very happy 93rd birthday. Our journey pales in comparison to yours.

The Day: Today we got our earliest start yet. I'm not sure how she did it but Betsy got me up and actually walking by 6:45. It rained hard last night but the skies were clearing by morning. It made for some slippery trails at times but at least the rain had moved on. So today with the early start and a shorter distance as our goal we took our time. We stopped for breakfast after a couple of hours and re-energized, then moved on. The main challenge for today was the "Hill of Forgiveness" or Alto del Perdon which is a bit more than a hill rising over 300 m over a distance of 4 kms. At the top there are a lot of wind mills and the wrought iron representation of medieval pilgrims with heads bent to the west wind (see picture below). The weather was in the low 70's with lots of wind. We made it to Puente la Reina by mid afternoon and then went through our routine of washing clothes and showering. Our feet hurt but no major injuries thus far... God is good!

the sun rise ... I actually saw it :-)

path as we head toward the "hill"

midieval pilgrims (see explanation below)

town of Obanos

church in Obanos

our room for the night

The People: We really did not meet any new friends today ... lots of people helping us order things in Spanish, etc and many familiar faces. Our albergue for the night has 2 rooms with10 bunk beds each, pairing 2 bunks in kind of cubicles. Our "room mates for the night is a young Spanish couple Jorge & Maite.

Zubiri to Cizur Menor - 8/12

(Distance: 26.4 km   Time: 7 hours)
The day: Lights on again at 6am, we packed up and went down for a quick breakfast of you guessed... toast and coffee. You get lots of carbs in Europe. Today was not as strenuous from a terrain point of view but our objective was to make up the 5.5 kms we lost yesterday so we worked hard at keeping a good pace. You see, no matter how hard we try to focus on the journey, the destination keeps getting in the way. We have a plan and we want to stick to it instead of just going with what is given to us for that day. None the less, hard walking for 7 hours makes time for hard praying. Today's terrain was a combination of wooded area, farm roads, little towns and paved walkways. The water however tasted horrible so we were drinking less and at lunch time we entered a town and went on the hunt for a grocery store. So for lunch we had fruit, fruit and more fruit with orange drink mixed in. It tasted wonderful and sustained us to our destination. We entered the old city of Pamplona (no bulls running at the time) stopped for a quick drink and moved on. Our feet were aching but we made our destination by 3pm ... back on plan ! (hard to get the project mgr out of me)

The People: we seemed to keep running into Roberta and her young kids and also with Christina. On the path somewhere we walked & talked with a young man from England. He had a bad accident 5 years ago and hurt his back ... the camino is his last bit of rehab before he is totally out from unnder doctor care. It seems that everyone we meet has a story as for how they got here and why they are walking the camino. While we walked through Pamplona, a man stopped us out of the blue with a hearty "Buen Camino!"  We stopped and talked for a minute ... he had lived in the US and was so excited about us doing the camino. After wishing us well, we parted ways. Most people are friendly, helpful and don't seem to mind when our Spanish is horrible.
 

our early morning path

making our way across the country side

bridge & waterfall in a little village along the way

gate pilgrims enter into Old Pamplona

streets of Pamplona

our beds for the night at the albergue in Cizor Menor

church in Cizor Menor where we attended Mass