Floors of stairs climbed: 4, but just in our albergue in Uterga. (Seemed like more than that!)
I’m writing this post on April 19, five days later. But it seems like weeks ago!
We needed more time in Pamplona to finish our errands and I was still feeling a little poorly from the bug I had caught so we decided to make it a leisurely day. We spent the morning in Pamplona and then took a taxi to Uterga. (Since we pre-reserved all our nightly accommodations, we didn’t have the easy option of staying in Pamplona an extra day and then walking to Uterga the next day. Downside of pre-reserving: little flexibility.)
Hemingway spent a lot of time in Pamplona and that might be why Pamplona is known in the wider world. Pamplona is also famous for the Running of the Bulls, the Festival of San Fermín, which happens every July. It’s a pretty city with plenty to do and see. But we didn’t do that this time. We have been here twice before so didn’t leave time for sightseeing.
We were ready to get out of the city actually and were glad to get to tiny two-albergue town Uterga around noon. We thought our private room in Albergue Casa Baztán would be nice since it cost 60 euros and got 4.6 Google stars. It was also the only choice we had. The room shocked us. Large but no window, no place to sit. It was clean but very very old and shabby. We spent most of the afternoon having lunch and then hanging out in the bar across the street.
But, I ended up enjoying our stay at Casa Baztán. It had a certain charm. The simple communal pilgrim’s dinner they served us was quite good and it was fun sharing it with other pilgrims.
Fields of mustard seen from taxi on ride from Pamplona to Uterga.Entrance to Casa Baztán. A big heavy door.Reception area in Casa BaztánDining room/bar where we had the communal meal. A delicious fresh salad, choice of roast chicken or fish or pork, fried eggs on rice, ice cream, wine, water, bread.
Shadows Mural seen walking out of Torres del Rio Their take on what pilgrims like to eat. Looks more like typical American fast food. They got the coffee right. They missed the French fries that seem to come with every pilgrim’s menu. Seems like an odd sign to have to have on the trail among the wheat fields on a tiny gravel road which might get a few cars a day. Maybe left behind of some construction?
Flights of stairs climbed equivalent while walking: 52
Flights of stairs avoided by taking taxi: approximately 100 (and that many down as well)
We got up early and left Los Arcos without breakfast or coffee. (I did take a caffeine pill.) We had breakfast/coffee in Torres del Rio after about 4.5 miles of walking. We enjoy starting out on an empty stomach.
Most of those 4.5 miles were fairly flat and then it started to get quite hilly.
It’s been interesting noting the things we remember from being here 12 and 13 years ago. And the things we remembered wrong. Both of us were SURE Torres del Rio was up on a hill and Sansol was down in the valley before Torres del Rio. Turned out to be the opposite. Sansol is on the hill, Torres del Rio is lower. How could we both get it wrong?
Torres del Rio has the most amazing 12th century Knights Templar church, Iglesia do Santo Sepulcro de Torres do Río. It was locked today. (There was a number to call if you wanted someone to let you in.) But we noticed birds building mud nests up along its roof line. This is the third church where we’ve seen this on this Camino, something we’ve never seen before. Perhaps this is something that only happens for a short time of the year? Birds flitting about either bringing mud for the nests or perhaps food for their chicks? I took a video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XrGVtR16LgSUu2iU8
Maybe you bird people can let us know what kind of birds these are and what they are doing??
The walk we needed to do today to get to Viana was longer than we wanted to do in distance, heat, and extreme ups and downs. So, we decided to take a taxi the last 5 miles into Viana. I felt so sorry and admiring of all the pilgrims we passed trudging through the hot sun. Of course, we had done that walk twice before: in 2013 and then again in 2014.
We are staying in a nice hotel in Viana. Kind of a faded glory hotel. It hasn’t been updated in a while. (Evidenced by the wall phone missing a receiver next to the toilet.) But quite comfortable, and inexpensive (65 euros). We ate lunch in their restaurant and it was amazing (and not cheap by pilgrim standards, but not expensive by USA standards). The trouble with these menus is I always eat too much.
Last night in Los Arcos having fruit for dinner on our balcony. We weren’t hungry after a HUGE weekend menu del dia for lunch.The church in Los Arcos. I remember it is spectacular inside but it was locked up tight this time, even on a Sunday morning. Most churches we pass are not open.Leaving Los ArcosMountains in the distance. It looks like snow but it was just a trick of the light.Path between Los Arcos and SansolYoung pilgrims who passed us. I don’t think we’ve seen (certainly haven’t met) any pilgrims as old as we are. This surprises me since I know a lot of old people do walk the Camino. But guess we are a small percentage. I’d say 30 or 40 is about the average age. Sansol in the distance. (But we thought it was Torres del Rio.)An amazing breakfast in Torres del Rio. That omelette/cheese/tomato sandwich (warmed up) was on amazing bread. Good coffee, too.Walking through Torres del Rio, passing La Pata de Oca (Foot of the Goose) where we stayed in 2013 and 2014.How they did the menu was a new one for us. They served us, to share in the middle of the table, all four first course items (the 4 at the top of the menu above). Then we each chose a second course (we got the fish and lamb) and the desert (one of each for us).Carpaccio de Salmon. I’m not sure how good it looks here but the sauce was amazing kind of lemony with pomegranate seeds. I didn’t mind the raw salmon too much. Charlie loved it.Charlie enjoying the fourth first course. This they did serve in two separate dishes. Old abandoned church outside our balcony in our hotel here in VianaNow blogging in the hotel bar
When we order the mixed salad here it almost always comes with white asparagus. I’m sure we’ve shown some salad photos with it. We don’t like it, kind of mushy. Green asparagus is harder to transport and has to be picked before it goes to seed. We heard it was grown underground. Betty, last night, mentioned how they grow it.
They just cover it with black plastic.
Today we were chatting with a guy from Oxford and related the story. He said he did not know there was green asparagus. So it must not be common in the UK either.
So I have to relate my favorite, and only, asparagus joke. At a dinner with shared food a plate of (green) asparagus was being passed down. On getting the plate a woman took a knife and sliced off all the tips and put them on her plate. The next person was shocked and asked why she had done that. She said, “Oh, the tips are the best part, didn’t you know?”
The yellow arrow is, of course, the Camino marker. The white over red blaze is a marker for a GR route. The GR routes are all over Europe and several follow the various Caminos.
This year we started seeing these along the Camino
I am referring to the bicycle-1-3-arrow part. I left the rest of the sign for interest. It seems the EU has a number of long bicycle routes. They must be fairly recent since we have not seen these before. Some follow the Camino, like the GRs.
Making sure the perigrinos know this.
EuroVelo 1 is the Atlantic Coast Route, running from Norway down to Portugal.
EuroVelo 3 is the Pilgrims Route, which follows historic pilgrimage paths from Trondheim, Norway all the way to Santiago de Compostela.
Stickers Stickers Stickers defaced the wine museum sign but they couldn’t touch this huge sign for the wine fountain, coming soon to a blog post near you The marker for the site of Estella’s medieval synagogue Marker in the weeds, with lots of yellow arrows We have shown examples of stones left on markers but what if the Camino sign is attached to a wall?
We had a small breakfast provided by our B&B (Casa Tau). A mile or so past Larrasoaña we passed Hotel Akeretta which was where we stayed on our Camino in 2013 and found out, after we had checked in, that it was the hotel where Martin Sheen stayed in the movie “The Way”. If you’ve seen the movie it was where Martin Sheen met the blond woman from Canada and where he caught the hotel owner pretending to be a bull fighter.
As mentioned in my previous post, I got behind in my daily logs. Shoot, it’s hard to remember all I’d like to remember about the day. I do remember we were concerned about all we had to do when we got to Pamplona: 1) Go to an optical shop so I could replace a broken ear piece on my reading/computer glasses. 2) Reorganize all our stuff and mail a small suitcase to our endpoint (Sahagún which is half way to Santiago). It held things we only needed on the plane. 3) Do laundry. 4) Buy Kleenex and cough drops (my sore throat had turned into a cold).
On the edge of Pamplona we decided to catch a taxi to shorten the day’s walk a bit and get to our errands. We had stopped in a bar for coffee and an amazingly helpful woman in the bar called a taxi for us and then walked us to the place to meet the taxi since we were in a pedestrian area.
We got to our hotel (Hotel Yoldi) and checked in and headed up to our room. On the elevator, uh oh, Charlie realized he didn’t have his phone. We remembered he’d had it out on the taxi so figured he probably left it there. But, we couldn’t call the taxi driver since we hadn’t called him ourselves. We rushed back to the front desk and asked them to call the bar where they’d called the taxi. We were panicking and not thinking clearly. The hotel desk person suggested the obvious thing: Why don’t you call your phone? We did and the taxista answered! He was rather far away by then but he brought it to us when he was nearer to our part of town It cost us an additional 7 euro taxi fare! Worth it!
We had a nice lunch in the hotel restaurant while waiting for the phone to show up. Then headed out for our errands.
Hotel AkerettaSomewhere along the wayCharlie got his phone back! Whew!Running of the bulls statue in Pamplona
As you can see, there was only 1/5 as much elevation gain as yesterday so a fairly flat walk today. There was a lot of downhill at the beginning and then it was gently rolling hills. Gentler than usual. Nice!
There are no towns between V de M and LA so that made the walk seem long. But there was a food truck with chairs and benches so we were able to get a cold drink, an orange, and rest our feet a bit. The food truck didn’t have a bathroom and it was wide open country so … I had to be creative to find a place on the trail.
Our wonderful hosts from our B&B last night were Bert and Betty. Betty was an amazing cook. And possibly the nicest person I’ve ever met. Bert and Betty are from the Netherlands but moved to Villamayor de Monjardin about 13 years ago and worked in the albergue there. Then 3 years ago they bought this B&B, Casa Rural Montedeio.Betty’s vegetable tart. I’ve never eaten anything like it. Bert making breakfast for us this morning. I asked him about the bread machine (right). He said they make fresh sour dough bread every day for the guests. We had it for breakfast, it was still warm. OK, if you ever get a chance to go to Spain, go to this B&B!!!Our room in the B&B. Heading out this morning.Looking back at Villamayor de Monjardin. There is a castle at the top of the hill. Built in 5th century. Bert said there is a little church inside it and twice a year all the people in the village (population approx. 100) walk to the top and have a church service there.Steady stream of pilgrims.In Los Arcos we ate at the restaurant across from our hotel. A delicious menu. Unfortunately it’s Saturday and the menus almost double in price on the weekend. But, it was worth it. First course, beans and mixed salad. Both were outstanding. The Spanish make such good beans and fresh salads. For second course we had chicken and trout.We have windows in our hotel room. And a huge balcony. We are in a regular hotel. Very comfortable. Now sitting in the hotel bar blogging.
Walking: 3.6 miles, 2 hours and 23 minutes, up 427 feet, down 531 feet
Note by Wynette: I started this post several days ago and then ran into problems uploading the photos. It took a couple of days for us to resolve this problem, plus we had a couple of very busy days. I got behind on our daily logs. I hope to slowly fill them all in! Of course, the dates are going to appear out of order.
The stretch of walking leaving Linzoain is famous for being treacherous when wet. Extremely steep downhill, rocky, muddy, and slippery. Much discussion about it on the Camino forum we read. Weather forecast was for overnight rain, 100% chance, for several hours. Charlie and I decided we didn’t want to risk it. So … we called a taxi to take us around that section. Of course, it might have been the first time we’ve ever seen here when it didn’t rain when there was any rain at all in the forecast. But, I didn’t mind missing that section, even if it didn’t rain much after all.
We told the taxi driver, “Take us to the closest bar to the Camino in Zubiri.” We had a nice coffee there and then headed out, starting on the Camino at Puente de la Rabia where supposedly people would take their rabid animals to be cured (by walking around it somehow, even though the bridge is over a good-sized river, at least by New Mexico standards).
This was a life-size photo in the bar where we had coffee in Zubiri. I imagine it was taken during the time Franco controlled Spain.Starting the day’s walk at Puente de la Rabia in Zubiri.This beautiful old church was on the Camino not far from Zubiri. Locked up tight. See next photo for details.Details about the above church. 12th century Romanesque. I would have loved to see that 13th century painted alterpiece.It did rain off and on. We were glad to have our rain coats for that but also to stay warm. It was a chilly day.
