Pamplona to Puente de la Reina

Well the book lies again!!!  We thought we were in for a 21km day and it ended up 29km!!!  For those of you that are familiar with the Camino there are several iconic Camino images on the way.  The first is the iron sculpture of the pilgrims which sits on the highest peak leaving Pamplona.  It is the area where the wind turbines are also placed.  The second on this leg is the bridge after which the town we are staying in tonight is named, the Puente de la Reina.  The third  is the octagonal church of Santa Maria de Eunate which is linked to the Knights Templar.  We covered all three today and have included the photos in the blog above.  The killer was to get to Santa Maria which entailed a detour off the main Camino of 4.2 km ,which in the morning we had agreed to and by the time we were walking up an incline of what felt like 40 degrees, our legs quietly regretted.  Nonetheless, two vino Biancos later, all is forgotten for another day.  The routine was back on again, we keep seeing the same groups of people, but in different orders.  Many of the men are looking less identifiable as their beards are growing and many are suffering from blisters or leg ailments. The spirit and sense of commitment to the pilgrimage is still there with all of them.

We have discovered that many of the MANY churches we are passing are  locked because many artefacts have been souveniered or stolen (not sure what the difference is but any way).  We have managed to get into some and have our Pilgrim passport stamped – they are all very ornate and very Spanish and there is most certainly no shortage of gold!

I managed to provide a running commentary on market gardens today and was very excited to be able to order fresh artichokes and white asparagus at the bar we had dinner in this evening – all produce which had walked past during the day.

The routine we have inadvertently dropped into is to walk for two hours, stop anywhere that sells a coffee (by the road in caravans, in little towns or outside Albergues) and eat a muffin or biscuit that we have “souvenired” from breakfast (that is OK because it is not from a Church!!).  Today’s ritual was not without incident.  Lori was off getting her passport stamped in the church, I purchased the coffees and we met back at the bench in the courtyard of the church.  Without either of us being prepared the Church bell at a distance of about 20 metres and a diameter of about a metre and half struck – neither of us were prepared but least of all Lori who let out an F*** Me at the top of her voice which mercifully was drowned by the incessant clanging….the man next to us we discovered does speak English but was either too polite or now temporarily deaf from the bell ringing simply looked at us and smiled.  Oh well, we may be on a pilgrimage and hopefully all will be forgiven!!!