From Larrasoaña to Pamplona

Trip Start Aug 25, 2008

Trip End Oct 02, 2008

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Paderborner Klosterbrüder (pilgrims refuge)

(Pamplona hotels)

Flag of Spain and Canary Islands Pamplona, Navarra, Spain and Canary Islands
Friday, August 29, 2008

I wouldn't have believed it yesterday, but today I feel better. Packing my things and leaving around 7, it is rather cool and misty. Again, I am among the last pilgrims to start. My joints don't hurt as much as yesterday and the pain in my shoulders has disappeared. It seems like I will be able to walk on.

There's a lot of different plants and bushes around me. Some of them I know. There are blackberry bushes everywhere and the berries taste delicious. So I walk through forests, pass meadows and eat blackberries all the time.

The forest is fascinating, with all those noises, the misty path and almost no people. Almost - I encounter two fellow pilgrims who I remember from yesterday's dinner. It's Sandor and Neia, the artist couple from Finland. They seem to be as intrigued by the forest as I am, for they stop every ten meters or so to take pictures

Starting the day in the morning mist

.

In the next village, there's a bar. Not really a village, more like three houses and a paved road, and not really a bar, more a garage with two tables and a small kid selling coffee and biscuits. It works though. There are already some pilgrims gathered drinking coffee and eating biscuits, so I decide to stop here too.

Having finished my breakfast, I carry on. Again I do not want to rest too much time. The sun is rising above the mountains and the blue skies promises hot weather later on. After walking for some time alone, I catch up Agnesa, an amiable German-Italian I just met at the garage-bar. A conversation enrols and I decide to stick with her for some time.

We're walking on a slower pace than yesterday, but that is perfectly fine by me now. After what feels like a very short time of walking compared to yesterday, we have entered the outskirts of Pamplona. We are both surprised that we reach the pilgrim's refuge of Paderborn well before 1 pm.

Later on, Agnesa decides to team up with Max and Petra, my fellow Austrian travellers, and Veronika, a congenial Swiss girl who by chance ended up at the same refuge

Follow the yellow markers

. As Agnesa learns that Veronika is originally Italian, an Italian chit-chat far too fast for me to follow begins. We decide to take a city tour - as if we haven't walked enough today already.

The centre of Pamplona is rather small and we meet a lot of fellow pilgrims there. There's Leo, the Argentinian, Patrick, the mad Irishman, the two Finnish artists and many more. We spend a wonderful afternoon together, have pilgrims menu for dinner and get back to the refuge about five minutes before the doors are locked. Tonight I've got a room with only three other people, and the bunk beds are even clean! I've regained my confidence; today was great, so tomorrow can't be that bad either.