Beatitudes of the day :

3 – Blessed are you pilgrim, when you contemplate the “camino” and you discover it is full of names and dawns.

4 – Blessed are you pilgrim, because you have discovered that the authentic “camino” begins when it is completed.

When we woke this morning we felt we wanted to get out on the road again. We saw many of those who had started with us in St Jean Pied de Port making there way out of the city. It was a bit sad knowing we wouldn’t see most of them again. There is quite a comraderie that builds up with the people you see everyday.

Instead we explored the old town. Pamplona is an expanding, vibrant university city with a population of about 200,000. It dates from the 1st century BC and has a long and dramatic history of seiges, occupations, sackings, destruction, fires and rebuilding (several times). It is located on a high, defensible bluff with elaborate and sophisticated fortifications. Much of these survive and are now public parks with some for example having moats drained and now occupied by deer and peacocks.

Our hotel is located in a side street just a few metres from the main square, Plaza del Castillo. This is a huge open space with arcades and canopies shading the shops, bars and cafes around the perimeter. When we arrived last evening it was packed with people out enjoying the entertainment in the afternoon sun. There was music, an old fashioned Punch and Judy show, string puppets dancing to Elvis, very loud marching street bands, many buskers and entertainers.

After the peace and silence of walking in the countryside for three days the sudden vibrancy and noise was quite startling.

This morning the square was very different. It was set up for the running of a half marathon. Barricades, loud speakers, banners and hundreds of super fit looking athletes, male and female. I don’t know what level it was but there were a lot more elite level looking runners than The Round the Bays Fun Run. They were all beautifully turned out in the latest colour co-ordinated Lycra. We guessed a field of about 500.

Pamplona is known of course for the running of the bulls made famous by Ernest Hemingway who visited here many times from the 1920s to the 1950s. There is quite a Hemingway cult with all the bars and hotels he frequented cashing in on his name. The Cafe Iruna has a life size brass statue of him leaning up against the bar in a corner. There is also a counter culture with one bar having a sign announcing that Hemingway never drank there.

Each year in July, Pamplona selebrates it’s patron, San Fermin, by running bulls through the streets and then holding bull fights. Both bulls and steers run and the steers get to run another day, but the bulls run just once to their death in the bull ring. Hemingway’s celebration of this festival made it world famous and turned it into the touristy, overcrowded, drunken rite of passage it is today.

At the end of a long day on the road pilgrims are starving and want a meal. The Spanish custom is that after the afternoon siesta they work a few more hours before coming out in the evening to relax. The restaurants will serve drinks but will not serve meals before about 10pm. This is hopeless for tired and hungry peregrinos.

Fortunately there are dozens of bars that sell tapas. Often if you buy a drink the tapas are complementary. We have taken a liking to tapas. They are cheap and there is a huge range from the simple to the very elaborate. The Navarra region we are in is renowned for the quality and variety of its produce so the tapas are delicious. Most of the time we haven’t a clue what we are purchasing but that just adds to the fun.

A bit cold today and drizzly at times with a strong wind. Twelve degrees at lunchtime but it improved to nineteen later in the afternoon.

i pod theme song for today is from Willie Nelson.

On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again.. . . . .  . . . . .