Vinsman

Today’s walk is always interesting. Waking out of Pamplona and into the hills up to the Alto Padrón and down the other side. I guess I am in better shape this year as the climb up and more importantly the walk down the other side was not nearly as bad as I remember.

Puente La Reina is a great little town. I stayed at the Santiago Apostle albergue which is across the bridge and up the hill. The hill is not so bad but damn I never really love climbing another hill just to sleep. Anyway the albergue is great, the shower is hot and I was able to use the washer and dryer to wash all of my clothes. Today I hung out with Peter from the UK, Pietra from Germany and David from Dallas. Peter and I walked a good part of the day together he was very interesting to talk to. He has a degree from Oxford and we share many of the same views of the world.

Last night I stayed in albergue Avellena in Zubiri. Again I am surprised at how full the Camino is. Every bed in Zubiri was full and so was the town 5 km further Laransaña. I arrived and was able to get a single bed for 2 euros more. Well worth it. Jon from País Vasco arrived about the same time. We ended up having beers together.

The walk to Pamplona is not too bad. About 22 km I met a group of ladies from the US who all lived in Granada, there were 12 of them. It was fun to talk to them about how they ended up in Granada from the US, most just said they wanted to try living in Spain for a year. Many had been there 3 or more years.

I arrived on Sunday in Pamplona the streets were full of people.

Today I walked down the mountain to Zubiri. When I left Roncesvalles there was a light rain, so I had all of my rain gear on. I don’t love rain gear but it is better than getting rained on. It was also dark so I had my headlamp going as well. By the time I got to my first coffee in Burgette the rain had cleared and off came the gear and out came the sun. I walked with a very interesting girl today. Her name is Angie. When I first met her at our second stop for food and coffee, I asked where she was from and she told me Hawaii. I told her that my daughter-in-law was from Hawaii and we introduced ourselves. After a bit of walking it turns out that Angie is actually from Maryland and has only lived in Hawaii for a few years. Prior to that she lived in Japan where she interned to become a Sushi chef. After two years she got a job in Hawaii working in a very high end Sushi restaurant. She is now in construction on her own restaurant in Oahu. A hand roll restaurant. It was fascinating to talk to her. Turns out she is also Korean and speaks Korean.

My day was short I arrived in Zubiri by 12:45 pm and am getting ready to go have lunch. Tomorrow Pamplona.