The Winter Passage: 01/08/19

I got up around 08:00 and had the buffet breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. Then I showered and packed up. I used Pidetaxi to get a taxi to the spot I left off on the Camino de Santiago near the Citadel. I then started walking some time after 09:00.

It was a cloudy day, there was no rain. I walked out of Pamplona through the University of Navarre. I got mixed in with some students along the way. One was wearing a jacket that said "Mitchell's Tavern, Milwaukee, Wisconsin".

I exited the city and went up through the suburb of Cizur Menor. There was a pharmacy along the path, so I stopped and asked for some blister cream. The woman working there instead wanted me to take off my boot and look at the blister. She then out the cream on gauze and tape it over my blister. What service! I bought the rest of the blister cream and a tooth brush and tooth paste.

I continued climbing up the Alto del Perdon, which is a ridge west of Pamplona with forty windmills. It took several hours to get to the top. When I finally reached the summit, it was very windy like the lady at the pilgrim office had warned. There is a metal statue of medieval pilgrims walking and riding horses or donkeys that the wind turbine company erected.

The way down from the Alto del Perdon was hard on the knees and feet. It was kilometers of loose rocks the size of baseballs and softballs. I had to take it slow on the descent.

I finally got down near Uterga and changed my socks from a sweaty pair to a dry pair. This is something I need to do everyday going forward. Blisters are more likely to form in wet socks. I then proceeded through Muruzabal and Obanos. I tried to go to the churches in every town in the hopes of getting more stamps for my pilgrim credential, but all the churches were locked up. I think they are only open when there are masses.

I finally made it into Puente La Reina before dark. I checked into the Albergue de Peregrinos for only €5. I ran into Alesandro the Italian guy and Nicholas. The Koreans showed up shortly after. The Korean dad with his two daughters were the last ones to arrive and got in after dark. My nickname for him is Big Daddy even though he is a fairly small guy. All of the original group made it to the albergue except for one person.

I took a shower, then ran over to the grocery store to buy detergent pods, a razor to shave with, medical tape, and gauze for my blister cream.

On the way back I stopped at a bar called Cerveceria Very. I had until 22:00 before the doors of the albergue were locked. Similar to last night I got a table wine, bread, starter, main dish, and desert for €10.90. I picked a spaghetti with meat sauce, fish, and ice cream as my choices. The bar did not have salmon, so I had to settle for something called navarino. It turned out to be local trout served Navarre-style, which meant the whole fish was on the plate minus the innerds. The spaghetti was bad, the trout would have been okay if I had not kept choking on the bones, and I drank too much of the tinto wine which came from a winery in town. The best course was the ice cream. I have not been impressed by the food in France and Spain thus far.

I got back to the albergue before the doors were locked and washed my clothes.