Blogs from Puente La Reina , Navarre, Spain, Europe

We slept fairly well last night, as we've gotten used to the routine. We'd decided to leave a bit earlier and avoid the afternoon heat, so we were up at 6am and out the door by 6:30. It took a while to get out of Pamplona, but the walk was fairly pleasant, through parks and such. When we reached the outskirts of Pamplona, we crossed a busy roundabout and headed up hill (of course) to Cizur Menor. I remembered staying in the Mari Roncal albergue when I did the Camino in 2017, and sure enough it was still there, although called Familia Roncal albergue. At the top of the hill, we spotted a decent bar, and since we hadn't had breakfast at the municipal albergue in Pamplona, we stopped for coffee. I forget the name of ... read more

Cizur Menor to Maneru: Last night we ate the Pilgrims Menu. I had the house soup, filet of hake with fries, and a delicious local dessert. I negotiated with the waitress and got a coffee instead of the water and wine. Everything was quite good and filling, as usual. Although there was a festival in town and the music was pretty loud, I fell asleep quickly and slept most of the night, waking up a bit late, at almost 7:30, along with my Camino friends. We quickly packed up and headed out, myself, Raresh, and the Danish lady named Kirsten Underlen. Today was a special day, since we would reach the Alto de Perdon, a highpoint on the Camino where they have a group of metal sculptures of pilgrims. Since we hadn't had breakfast yet, ... read more

27 August 2015, Thursday. GPS 14.25 miles 6 hours moving 8 hours total time. Fitbit: 148 stairs, 14.96 miles, 34,250 steps. To Puente de la Reina Inigo is ready to go at 6:40 but Harlan is still getting all the cords for charging 2 cell phones, hearing aids, Garmin 410 GPS watch, IPAD, Chromebook and portable power supply rounded up and in my backpack. Think NOT light!. At 10 minutes to 7 we are out the door to the underground parking and their new VW camper van with Karen's OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) bag in tow. Harlan has a replacement bag filled with necessarys such as hiking boots, tevas, hiking zip off pants, sweatshirt (certainly not needed in the heat we experienced last few days), replacement socks, underwear and t-shirt. We had done a crash marathon ... read more

Today we start from Pamplona and walk to Puente La Reina, a total of about 24 kms. We left our accommodation at 7 am in a taxi and were dropped at the point to continue our walk. Not much point walking through an area of suburban Pamplona that we had already traipsed through numerous times, so a taxi was the order of the day. Starting in the dark, the town lights illuminated the path enough to continue walking and we made good progress despite Sue having numerous blisters and I had a developing problem with a toe that became worse during the day. It's a family blog so no photos are shown. More pain than anything from having your feet constantly compressed into the toe of the boots on steep rocky declines. Still, there's plenty of ... read more

Sorry my pictures aren't downloading. I had a bunch almost done and the wireless signal fritzed for a second and gone.I may just have a pictorial entry when I get home and do a walk thru like that. This was an AMAZING day and sadly I don't have time to share it tonight. I got to walk with God today and see glorious wonders. It ended with mass here and the padre noting pilgrims in the crowd blessed us. I didn't get dinner because of mass being late. But when i returned to the hostel friends had made lots of food and fed me. They even took extras to a beggar outside the church. I walked a number of miles with a Serbian educator today and learned much. I prayed with my German roommate at mass. ... read more