Day 7 - Estella to Los Acros

We got a bit of sight seeing in while in Estella.  Our hotel was near the Plaza san Martin with it's many shops and restaurants.  However, being late Saturday, many of the shops were closed.  What wasn't, were several of the pastry shops, which were scouted out as a source of dessert after supper.  The hotel clerk told us  the mass times and we went to the Iglesia San Miguel right beside our hotel for 1730 mass - up a million steps only to find mass was at 1900. We wandered all about this magnificent church which had a very moldy smell, and then checked out the equally magnificient church of St Jean the Baptist in the main city square. They keep the lights very dim in the churches when it isn't mass, but they are always open.

Had the peregrino special for supper which included a fried egg. That seemed kind of weird but it was delicious.

This morning was again cool and overcast.  We seem to be having great luck with the weather so far-touch wood.

The path out of Estella was well marked, once we figured out exactly where the path was.  We thought it was going to be obvious getting back to the Way. A number of perigrinos did a lot of hand waving before we all decided on the correct course.  The obvious becomes so much less so after a break that includes a good night's sleep.

The path out of Estella was a climb, of course.  It seems you enter all towns either up or down a steep hill and leave similarly.

First stop, the famous Feunte de Vino provided by Bodegas Irache at the Monasterio de Irache.  It was a bit early, 8:30, for a pick me up, but everyone gathered around the spigot for a sample of vino tinto and a photograph. We met up with Margaret and John at the spigot who are the masters of doing things with style - they had plastic wine glasses. Most pilgrims used their scallop shells to sample the wine. Of course, there was a spigot of water as well, beside the spigot of wine.

The path wound through a forest of holm oaks.  The trees had small acorns but the leaves looked nothing like we think of as oak.

We carried on, and upwards, towards Villamayor de Monjardin.  This village lies at 650 metres and was a climb to get to.  Up on the hill, way up, was the ruins of St. Stephen's Castle and fortress, Castillo de San Esteban.  This was Pamplona's chief defense against Muslim attacks. The thing with buildings on hills is that they are with you for so long, you see them far off in the distance and yet an hour later, they are still far off in the distance.  The other thing is you look up at the ruins and think, we aren't going to have to climb up there, are we?  Thankfully, this time, we didn't have to.

The path carried on through very nice rolling hills, covered with recently harvested grain fields, olive groves, vineyards and asparagus fields.  It was so important to stop occassionaly and look back to where you had come from, the view was always breath taking.

The walk was long, not hard, but long.  It looks like our feet are catching on that this not a one or two day hike, but a long series of everyday hikes, and so both of us had tired feet by the time we reached Los Acros.  This turned out to be a very common complaint among all the fellow peregrinos.

Today was another day of meeting new friends, and reconnecting with old.

Lynn spent almost half an hour chatting with another pilgrim from Ireland.  He had done the Camino last year and was hiking with his wife, who wanted to complete those sections she hadn't done before. He fell ten days ago and cracked a bone in his shoulder. At one point Lynn said 'there is no evidence that St. James was ever in  Spain' at which point he said 'have you no faith?' Later he laughed and said he had some doubts too. He wanted to know where we are going in Ireland in May and figured we must be going  to his city which has two St. Patrick cathedrals. He said we would love Iona.

Then we ran into the other Irish pilgrim, sitting in the square in Los Arcos, who had left at 5:30 this morning.

And happily we passed George and Jack, who we had met in St Jean, sitting in a park just before Los Acros. We later had supper with them. George's wife is now safely back in Atlanta.

Lynn had a good cry today on the camino for the Aussie teacher that lost his son. When we first heard his story a few days ago she was thinking it was divine intervention we had met him to support us in our struggle. But on further reflection perhaps we met  more for us to support him in his grief and struggle to come to terms with happened. We know enough of  this disease to understand how he must wonder if somehow it was his fault, if there wasn't something he could have done to prevent such a tragic and senseless loss of life. I'm starting to  believe that this isn't something you can ever let go of.

Summary - the mileage is adding up and its getting harder.  The body is starting to cease up from all the exercise.  Seista time feels so good. Tomorrow is 28km and the day after is 31. More time is being spent in quiet reflection. This is definitely a walk on holy ground.

Distance today - 22km
Distance total - 140.5km