Well I have walked 200 Kilometers (120 miles) and so distance-wise I am one fourth of the way to Santiago! Today I walked from Longrona to Najera which was about 18 miles. Lots of beautiful scenery but I wasn’t able to get my phone charged well last night so I had it turned off most of the time and was quite picky about when to turn it on for pictures.

Every morning when I leave town I leave by moonlight between 6 and 6:30. I love walking then and hearing mostly only the chirping birds. The sun rises behind me since I walk west so typically I don’t notice it has risen until it is quite high. The cathedral in Navarrete was beautiful as was the city in general. Usually I bring an orange or cherries in my backpack for breakfast but this am I stopped for breakfast in Navarrete and also bought a ham and cheese sandwich to eat later for lunch since there were not many towns.

The first couple Albergues I stopped at were full but the municipal one doesn’t open until 3 so I waited until 3 and got a bed there. They only accept donations from pilgrims so whatever you want to pay.

Fantastic day and a strong end to my first week on the camino. Walked 29.5 k from Los Argos to Longrono today (a little over 18 miles). I have been following a 34 day schedule that they gave me at the pilgrim office as opposed to the 15 mile per day schedule that I had planned because of the spacing of the towns. Today, though I decided to walk 10k more than the schedule as the route looked pretty flat and it is a sunny, glorious day. The highlights were an architecturally wonderful Templar octagonal Romanesque church in Torres del Rio and a cathedral in Vianna. Walked the first stretch with Ruby from New Hampshire, the middle section alone and the end was like a reunion of young people that had gone ahead of me and are now walking together (Valentina from Germany, Melita from Slovenia, Micky from Italy and Michoel). We are all staying in the same Albergue as are Anna and her friend from Korea. I believe Longrona is the third largest town on the Camino so will have to explore a bit after I clean up (relatively speaking).

What a glorious day! Walked from Estella to Los Arcos today (about 14 miles again). Sunny and perfect temperature for walking! A few kilometers outside of Estella there is Bodegas Irache winery with the famous wine fountain. The morning walk was mostly uphill but on even terrain and the views were spectacular! Spain is certainly doing their part to preserve the bees as wild flowers and bees are plentiful. Lovely to see and smell when walking. We walked by lots of vineyards and through only a couple sleepy little towns. I walked by myself mostly but met several of my new Camino friends along the way.

If you have not heard of the “Pilgrim Passport” it is a souvenir folder that you get at the Pilgrim office at the beginning of your Camino and you can have it stamped at churches and alberges along the way. You are required to have a pilgrim passport before you can stay at an albergue. I’ll include a picture of mine along with today’s pictures.

The cathedral at Los Arcos is one on the most ornate I’ve ever seen!

Walked from Puente Le Reina to Estella today (14 miles today, 72 since I started). Rain was forecasted again today but didn’t really materialize. It drizzled a little, like a typical day in Ireland so it was pleasant walking with my light rain resistant jacket and pack cover and no poncho. It wasn’t a bad day except I have a sore spot on the ball of my right foot. I think it may be a bruise from all the sharp rocks I’ve been walking on. The good news every day so far I get up excited to walk! Not once yet have I thought oh no not again. My bunk mate threw some of my clothes in the laundry with hers and somebody else’s and somehow I lost a blue sports bra. The way things have been going I’ve no doubt it will show up again at some point! Anna and I left the Albergue at different times and still ended up at the same one this afternoon. Yesterday the Internet was slow and I could not get my post to upload. I’ll see if I can upload both today.

Last night in Pamplona was fun. Marta and Bruna invited me to join them and we got a slice of pizza and walked around. Marta pointed out the hotel where Hemingway stayed and the cafe across the street when he was writing about running of the bulls. We saw a large crowd in one street. They were celebrating high school graduation and as they were dancing and moving down the street towards us I found myself wondering if this is how the bulls feel!

We saw this repeat several different times in several streets. So much energy!! Here is a picture of the Pamplona Cathedral. I love Cathedrals and on the Camino they stamp your Pilgrim passport.

This morning I got up and started walking at 6am to beat the rain. I was treated to a beautiful full moon in Pamplona…

When I stopped to fill my water bottle in the park I met a lovely young woman from South Korea. It was her first day on the Camino. She said to call her Anna (Hyun Jeong). We ended up walking the whole day. There were a lot of rocks, but no rain! She cooked us dinner tonight, what a treat! Here are some pictures from the day…

Had a nice evening In Larrasoana. Dinner was good with garlic soup, fish and rice pudding, the Pilgrims’ meal with Bruna and Marta. We also ate with Michoel, who is my first Camino friend as we met in Pamplona in the bus station on our way to Saint Jean Pied de Port that first night, Quint, who I ate with in Roncesvalles was also there. It really is uncanny how the same people keep popping up every day even though we walk at different speeds. After dinner We ran back to the hotel in the rain. I seem to have left one of my shirts on the balcony last night or I forgot to pack it in the dark this morning. Oh well.

Was wearing waterproof pants and a water resistant jacket and a poncho over everything else. It was really quite pleasant because of the temperature being a little cool. Today I don’t know if it’s because of weather or because I got it wet, but my phone started calling random people during what would be the middle of the night in the states! I made a short day of it and ended up staying in Pamplona today. I figured it would be fun to spend a some time exploring this afternoon and evening.

I am adding a little post script…. The missing shirt just showed up at the Albergue! I ran into Marta in the laundry room just now and she said that she got my shirt that I left it in the bathroom at the hotel last night. We had not even planned to stay at the same Albergue and did not walk together today. It really is uncanny the serendipity of the Camino!

I was told that today was almost all downhill. Is that some joke they tell New pilgrims? It was way better than yesterday but definitely not all downhill and what was downhill involved walking for miles on what looked like an old river bed covered in jagged rocks. The scenery was not as amazing as yesterday but still pretty good and I walked through several quaint little towns. I met many people today who I had walked a bit with yesterday like Melita from Slovenia and Valentino from Germany. I walked 15 miles from Roncesvalles to Larrasoana. When I got to town I was worried I would not get a bed as the two women hiking in front of me split up to go to the two places renting to Pilgrims (as the Municipal Albergue is closed for construction. I followed one but no luck, they were completely full. The second woman said there was one room left that would accommodate 3 and I was welcome to join them. The room is a regular hotel and not bad for 20 euro each. I am staying with Bruna from Brazil and Marta from Switzerland. Here are some pictures from today…

All winter I’ve been worrying about this first day and everyone said it was the hardest day and it is so hard! My legs are not tired but I am just not used to these hills I don’t have the stamina for it. I’m so glad I walked through the Pyrenees as they are beautiful! The weather is sunny and perfect! I am truly blessed! I’m going to post some pictures and not write too much today because I don’t have very good phone reception in the mountains here.

I wrote the above while in the mountains and wasn’t able to post. I am at the Albergue now and still not able to post even after I removed the video so will try to post without the pictures and maybe I can update later.

This first day was soooo hard! Mid-morning I thought that I would not be able to do it!! I decided I would go slow and soak in the amazing scenery in the Pyrenees so I did and it was breathtaking! Well I made it! And the Albergue at Roncescalles is awesome! It is an old monastery recently remodeled and the facilities are clean and well suited for the needs of a Camino Perigrino (pilgrim walking to Santiago). The outlets are convenient, there is a locking cabinet by each bed, the mattresses are comfortable, the food is great, and even though they had hand washing facilities I splurged and paid the laundry 3.50 Euro to wash everything in my pack for me ( except what I was wearing). I woke now, at 4am and the floor containing 200 people is completely silent! What an adventure!

First travel day was perfect! My son drove me to Mpls last night and I had a great night and a lovely continental breakfast this morning and a fun conversation with the shuttle driver. He asked me where I was going and I told him I was going to walk across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago and he replied ” I didn’t see that coming”! Anyway we had a lovely conversation about Travel… He had an uncle that used to work for an airline so he traveled quite a bit and he was very interested in my adventure. My flight to Atlanta was pleasantly uneventful.

Prior to my trip I had a dream that I lost my wallet. In the dream I lost it because I did not put everything in the waistband that I have that has pockets to hold a variety of things. I decided from that dream that I need to make sure to keep everything in that waistband! At the gate in Atlanta I was getting some snacks out of my bag and I checked just to make sure I had everything and realized that little wallet that I had my credit cards in was missing! It had to either be on the plane or in the restroom or in the waiting area where I was at. I looked around me and then went back to the restroom to check the stall I was in… it wasn’t there and when I asked the young woman she gave me a “you really expect it to still be here look!!”. I went back and told the employees at my gate and they said to talk to customer service. I went back to that area and the helpful Delta employee called the gate and ask them to check out the plane.… Nothing. I knew I had to board soon so I went back to my gate called my daughter to tell her what I had done! She and I were talking about options and I told her I would email her copies of my cards. I was about to board the plane for Barcelona I didn’t know if I have time to call the banks. Immediately when I hung up an employee motioned me over and said that someone had turned in my wallet! She said she wanted to have me paged but her supervisor told her to wait until I came back. Anyway, can you believe it? Can you believe my carelessness apparently dropping the wallet as I took out my passport and the kindness of a stranger to turn it in!!! People are so kind!!

I’m going to Barcelona as I am writing this. Nice thing about the long overnight flights is that they come by frequently with snacks or water or our meals. Between that and options to watch movies the time goes pretty fast. I was originally booked into a middle seat, and with the confusion about my wallet I didn’t even try to change it, but there was no one in the third seat so I moved over and the young Spanish woman knitting and I now have a seat between us.

When I land in Barcelona it will be 8 AM local time. I will have a few hours before I take the train to Pamplona.

This was kind of an uneventful blog but sometimes uneventful is pretty awesome! Plus, I just landed in Barcelona!

This is about the third video that I made trying to get one short enough to upload. I forgot to mention the rocket notebook that I have in the side pockets along with some tissues. The white thing at the front of the table is the packing tube that I’m using to put my hiking poles in to check for the flight over. I have a waistband on that has room for my iPhone, passport, and wallet.