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Published: September 6th 2017
... Yes it was a big day and choosing photos is going to be impossible as we couldn't have had a more varied day.
We left the Monastery with the sun shining, the bells ringing and a tremendous sense of peace. A number of us thought it would have been lovely to have a "down day" there as it was totally isolated and would be good for the soul but we totally understood it wouldn't suit everyone. Having said that we were rewarded with a fabulous and varied day beginning with the prettiest castle we have seen, the Royal Palace of Olite constructed in the 15th century by Charles III, King of Navarre (the region we were now visiting). It was huge with stairs up and down, turrets, arched windows, courtyards and must have been spectacular in it's day. It was after that the advantage of being on a small group tour was demonstrated when an addition was made to the itinerary and we went to Pamplona which is a large city of about 300,000 and, of course, is famous for the running of the bulls. Justin was very careful to share both sides of the running and bull fighting
but I think we were all pretty like minded that it would not be RSPCA approved. No we didn't run with the bulls but we did walk the route which was absolutely fascinating imagining what it would be like. There are very strict rules about running with the bulls and the bulls are not killed at the end any more. Pamplona is by far the most famous town for the running but many small towns including Olite and Cardona have their own running next weekend. I could have entitled this blog "It's all about the bull" when I saw the photos!!
We moved onto Estella to walk the Camino. You had no idea we were doing that did you? We did some in Pamplona then joined some pilgrims in Estella. It was a great experience even if we only walked half an hour all up!!!!!! We definitely do not qualify for a passport, shell, certificate or even pretending we did part of the Camino - I cannot tell a lie! There were pilgrims everywhere and we spoke to an Irishman who had been walking 5 days and thought he'd lost about 3kg - and he was already bone thin.
So there we go, who needs Curves!
Onto our destination for the night. Yet another surprise in store - we saw part of the Tour d'Espagna and actually saw the winner of the stage - he was so far ahead of the second it was amazing. Just a little bonus as we headed for Laguardia and our home for two nights at Eguaren Ugarte winery. We had time to go to our rooms before we were given a tour of the winery and tasting. It is all go!!! After that we headed to a local restaurant which opened just for us and we had a 5 course degustation menu - superb and we felt very spoiled. We were grateful that it is a later start in the morning because it is so quiet and serene here and it will be good to enjoy the ambience.
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Rosemarie and Rodney
non-member comment
Camino
It was lovely that you were able to meet some of the pilgrims on a camino route. Great photos!