Still here. My cough is much better. Susan went to the doctor today and also has her pills for the next few days. Again we have a “mysterious ways” event. Had we stayed in Zariquiegui that first night, we would have gone over the mountains in blinding snow the next morning. We were better off with the struggle over on the first day. Now in Estella, had I gone to the doctor right off, Susan would still have gotten sick but we would be hiking and not near a Centro de Salud as good as Estella.

So we just had a nice bottle of wine with cheese, honey and bread and are waiting for the restaurant to open its kitchen at 7. In the morning we expect to roll off to Los Arcos. The magic fountain at Irache is the first landmark. www.irache.com

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We we got into town a few days ago, I thought that all I needed was rest and cough syrup. That was proven very wrong last night and this morning we had to go to the Centra de Salud and see una doctora. First we had to take a form to a bank and pay the bill 99€ then I saw the doctora and she gave me a prescription for Zithromax and some eye drops (I also seem to have conjunctivitis) The prescriptions were less than 10€. It is still unclear if we will leave mañana. No pix today. Sorry.

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We had breakfast at the hotel and went over the bridge to the Palace de los Reyes de Navarre (PRS-25-1). I photographed the capital with the battle of Roland
Unfortunately you will just have to wait for the capital with the deadly sins of lust, avarice, and sloth. Those pictures are locked in my camera until I get to a place with a public computer (thank you Apple for making the camera kit work only with iPads)

At 10 AM we returned to visit the Iglesia de San Pedro de la Rua (PRS-25-3), a 12/13th century fortified church. Did I already mention that towns are all built on fills with lots of steps? Here is the view from afar showing the three phases of construction.

Once inside you are greeted by Santiago Perigrino.
The next shots are inside the church.

This is the Baptismal Font

CLOISTER: in 1572 the Zalatambor Castle was blown up to confirm the absorption of Navarra into Spain. When this happened a lot of the beautiful cloister was destroyed by large chunks of rock falling down. What remains are capitals from 1175 which are amazing. Here are pix from the Cloister.
Finally we visited San Miguel (PRS-25-10) which was conveniently across from our hotel. It was not open but the entrance is completely amazing. The north portal is the work of a single sculptor around 1170, although the 8 apostles are a bit earlier. Here is the door and lots of the details around it.

We then went for an early dinner and 7:30 pm mass at San Miguel, which was in a small extra chapel, so we didn’t see the inside.

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Unfortunately I came over with a cold just starting. Last night I spent the whole night coughing. Thank goodness we were in a single room. So our goal today was to make it a little bit beyond Estella and to stop at a hotel. We managed to find a nice farmacia and got cough syrup and Riccola. We also found the hotel we were going to stay in had closed so we are right here in Estrella. I will post pictures from today’s 6.5 mile walk a little later.

OK here I am after a quick siesta. We proceeded to Villatuerta and up to the Iglesia de la Asuncion which is dedicated to a local monk San Veremundo.

Susan refilled her water jug here. This is the carving next to the pilgrim fountain.

Between Villatuerta and Estella there is a late 10th early 11th century Ermita de San Miguel. Just a ruins today but stands up pretty well.

We went to a bar for lunch. Everything including most bars were closed for mediadia Once we were back in the hotel I did the blog and slept until morning.

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The word if the day was MUD. In fact that was the word of the previous two days also. Here were my boots before we left.

We got off around 0800 and went through town on Calle Mayor (PRS-22-3) to the Queen’s bridge (Puente la Reina) (PRS22-6) a Romanesque bridge built in the 12th century. Here is a picture from Calle Mayor.

Here is the entry to the bridge from Calle Mayor

And here is the bridge.

We had a road detour at this point which was caused by a landslide. Remarkably non muddy.

Entering Maneru (PRS-24) we relaxed in a nice square and the proceeded out into the mud on our way to the next town. There were lots of vineyards and olive orchards since we had just entered the Navarran wine region.

Entering Cirauqui ( PRS-24) we came to a late 16th century cross and bought our lunch (another great ham and cheese)

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On the way out of Ciraucagi we saw a map of the world in a field made by school kids.

The remainder of our walk to Lorca involved grueling up and down hills though much mud and rocks. Took quite a while. However we did see an old Roman bridge and some ruins

a modern aqueduct

And a Gothic bridge

We arrived in Lorca after only 9 miles completely exhausted from all of the muddy ups and downs. We are in Bodega del Camino and have a private room with its own bath. We will be off again in the morning to Estrella and beyond.

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We slept until 0930 and got packed and off. Not unlike Maine lately, there was snow falling and more on the ground.

In Muruzabel we turned off the Camino Frances to make a nifty detour. First we had breakfast at a bar and the walked to Eunate (with help from friendly Spaniard). Eunate has a 12th century Templar chapel (PRS-15). It is octagonal and quite fascinating.

The capitals on some of the columns have faces with turbans and Negroid features indicating Moors.

We proceeded on the Camino Aragones, which we had joined at Eunate and proceeded to Obanos where we rejoined the Camino Francés and on to Puente la Reina and our room at the Albergue Jakue. (Jakue is James in Basque in case you didn’t know it) Seven miles today due to late start and tired bones.

After getting settled in and doing laundry we tried to go into Puente la Reina to find a farmacia or super mercado by they had closed since it was Saturday after 1400. I did manage to photograph the Iglesia del Crucifijo, another 12th century Templar church (PRS-22).

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We left the hotel before 8, stopped for a croissant before walking out of Pamplona. Our first stop was up a hill to Cizur Menor – PRS 22 and the 12th century Church of San Miguel, founded by the Hospitallers in 1135. The Romanesque-Gothic door has a tympanum with a crismón, a motif invented to distinguish Catholic monuments from Aryan. It contains a cross, the chi-rho that begins Christ in Greek and then alpha and omega as the beginning and end of all things.

Here is the Church of San Miguel.

After this, we had some yogurt at a bar and started up towards Zariquiegui arriving around 2 PM. Were told that the Albergue was closed and that we had to continue another 6 km to Uteri.

Here is the 13th century church in Zariquiegui.

We had lovely ham and cheese Subs and then proceeded up through incredible quantities of mud to the Alto de Perdon, the peak which is covered with windmills and at the top there are Pilgrim sculptures. Here are the sculptures, with us and without.

We continued over and now the mud was replaced by steep rocks for several km. We finally arrived in Uterga after 8 PM, a 12 hour 12.4 mile hike. We had dinner and slept in a private room.

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We planned to go to Zaraguieri and stay at a nice Albergue. Unfortunately the Albergue was close and we had to go over the mountain to Uterga. Here is us at the top of the mountain. When we are not exhausted we will fill in with other pictures.

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We leave Pamplona tomorrow morning for day one of our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela We will be following these metal plates in the road to find The Way.

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One of the chapels included the patron saint of the church where Susan and I were married. The church in Woburn goes back several generations of Joneses.

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