Sunday, May 10, 2026
Today’s walk brought me into the bright sunny skies of the Spanish countryside. I walked by many fields of wheat, grape vineyards and olive orchards.
I’ve heard that Spain has very good olive oil. Being more Italian than anything else, I generally use only Italian olive oil. Last night I had pulpo served over patatas which was generous dressed with olive oil. That, of course, is octopus served over potatoes. The olive oil was delightfully fruity and made the potatoes taste particularly good.
One of today’s first stops, and a very popular one, was the double fountain. Fountains of cold fresh water are usually in every city. One can refill your bottle right from free flowing fountains. The double fountain has two spigots from which pilgrims may drink freely. One has the usual water and the other flows with red wine.
I always take pictures of flowers so I am finding no disappointment of limited selections. Red poppies abound in this area with an abundance of yellow flowering plants. The road sides and field borders heavily display this red/yellow play of color. The yellow flowering plants are rapeseed from which canola oil is produced.
Purple Milk Thistle is seen quite often with purple blooms. Both the yellow plants and the ted poppies are also covering entire fields. Purple Milk Thistle is also seen around these field borders.
[Sorry, don’t have a good enough connection to get more pictures. Hopefully tomorrow’s albergue will have better. 😒]
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Today’s walk was about the same as yesterday. It was a little easier after yesterday helped get me ready for these daily walks.
My pictures will be a lot of country side and the old bridge I walked out of yesterdays city on, this morning. There is one that is a city in a hill side which reminded me of we pilgrims walking toward the heavenly city. But I am slipping into a metaphor; I will leave that to Paul Bunyan.
We walked into Mercadona thinking, hoping it was Estella, the final city for the day. But we found a festival in full swing. The town’s people were there and they were welcoming in pilgrims. We went in for a few minutes and were treated to some delicious local food items and drinks: water, soda, orange juice and, of course, wine. I had emptied my water bottle earlier, so I enjoyed the water. The local town band, maybe 10 men with many different instruments, were making the festival very real. Leaving to finish our walk, we had a mile or two to go.
It was nice to finally arrive in Estella. It is a bigger town that reminds me of the layout of Pamplona but smaller.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Today’s walk was my longest, so ofar. I arrived at Puente la Reina at about 5:00 pm. After walking 15 miles. “I cannot possibly walk another inch. Oh, wow! Look at the old church. I’ll be back later!”
lol. Actually I really felt that way and I really did pop off to the 12th century church.
But first, I have some catching up to do. Along the pilgrimage way, I am staying in albergue. They are similar to hostels in the us, sometimes known as student hostels. Those along the way are only for pilgrims and have low costs like 9 euro per night. I have chosen this as part of making my journey truly a pilgrimage. Some of these lost cost stays do not have good internet. Since I will be uploading lots of pictures I have to wait until strong internet connections are available. This time a couple days.
On the 6th, I walked out of Roncesvalles toward Zubiri. I walked through a section of dark forest (just like little red riding hood dark forest).
When I got to the next town my ankle was hurting pretty badly. I followed other pilgrims to where we turned in behind some buildings to get back on the trail. I didn’t think I would make it through the next section of forest and turned back into the city. Nothing was opened yet but I decided I needed to stay off the ankle for a day. So I waited and took the final few miles by bus.
So, the next day I was in the big city of Pamplona. I’ll put up several pictures of Pamplona if I can figure out how to subtitle them, I will leave notes.
While training for this walk, I walked three times a week for 2 months. The longest of the three walks was 10 miles. Today’s 15 mile walk really hit me hard and my ankle started acting up again. But I made it. I bought a stretchy bandage today for my foot. I plan walking another 15 miles tomorrow.
I’m sitting in a busy dinning hall trying not to fall asleep until this task is done. I’ll get as many pictures up as I can. Hopefully they will be in daily order to support this blog.
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
I am happy to have the hardest day of my journey done. I completed the main Pyrenees portion of the journey and crossed into Spain along the way then soon started down.
The elevation gain today was about the same as yesterday but the hills were longer which made it easier. However, coming down was an abrupt descent on a rocky dirt road. It was so steep I felt as though I would fall forward! Old hips, old knees and old ankles do not like terrain such as this, for sure. With a little soreness and a little pain I made it down the mountain.
We had come through the forest and it was lovely even though the clouds came to lie on the mountain path. Before the main descent, hail and rain started. Rock-Salt-Sized hail and a medium heavy rain. The temperature dropped and it was cold.
There were lovely vistas along the entire walk today. In the pics you will see lots of country side and grass covered mountains. Eventually we walked into the forest when we started going down.
I was quite happy to get to the albergue, which is connected to 13th century builds (large church). It is (or was) a monastery. And almost appeared as heaven as I finally stepped out of the cold, wet and dark forest.
The facility was nice and food was good. I read that they have 200 beds and room for more. This is a very popular place for Pilgrims
Monday, May 4 2026 First Day Walking
I left Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port at 7am. Bought a couple croissants walking out of town and stuffed them under my jacket. Ate each a different times during walk.
It rained for most of the first hour but cleared up nicely. The mountains are mostly rounded with grass covering them. The scenery was lovely all day.
As I walked high on the road I could see the farms in the valley. Signs indicated that this track through the mountains had been used by Napoleon when his troops came through. The lines from a favorite poem by Emerson came to me:
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, Of thee from the hill-top looking down; The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon. Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;
Nor did the farmer, today, know who was walking high above on the road to Santiago.
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