Fri 18 Sep - Day 4: Larrasoaña to Pamplona 16 km

69km walked. 716km left to walk after today. 

Day 4 saw me leaving the albergue as the 2nd last pilgrim at 7.30am. 

The weather was a cool 6 degrees Celsius in the morning, no wind and clear blue skies. 

Soon though, I encountered yet another image that was familiar from the movie "The Way". 

And on this patio, the albergue owner proclaimed that he always wanted to be a bullfighter. 

Back to the real world... I stopped at this cute outdoors bar / coffee shop for a cup of tea after 6km. 

An Australian girl showed me a screen print from the storms the other day. It said a top wind of 147km / hour had been recorded, even stronger winds than the 130km / hour I heard earlier. 

A couple of pics from Villava and Burlada, two towns that are more or less suburbs to Pamplona. Cute though. 

The bridge into Villava across Rio Ulzama. 

Old street of Villava. 

Apartment buildings with adjacent market gardens in Burlada. 

The John Brierley guidebook suggests an alternative route to the Camino into Pamplona. The is a walking/cycling path which neatles alongside the Rio Arga. So I walked there. Very tranquil. 

The two paths come together later on a go across Puente Magdalena. 

Soon I had arrived in Pamplona, a once heavily fortified town. 

There were spots of red paint on the stone walls in a few places. Not sure why. It looked ugly. 

I soon found my hostel for the next 2 nights, Ciudadela 7. The entrance is the right blue door but all balconies on the first floor are part of the hostel. 

At check in I found out that both Daina and Fiona were staying in the same room as me. I had a shower, got myself organized and then I was wandering out again to get my bearings. 

As per recommendation from the lady in the hostel reception, I had a simple lunch of Bocatas Hueves de Rotos. 

Or in English, small baguette breads where the inside has been taken away and replaced with scrambled eggs and something else. 

The left added ingredient was with a local sausage and the right was mushroom. 

The food was really nice and perfect as a simple lunch. 5€ all up. Bargain. 

This was the place, Dom Lluis, also as per recommendation. 

Did I say that I think that Pamplona is a really cool town? This is C/ San Nicolas. 

I wasn't planning to explore much today as I got all day tomorrow for doing so, but I couldn't help checking out where the Sanfermines, where the running of the Bulls are held in Pamplona. 

This is from where the Bulls are released. 

The Bulls need to follow the traffic directions. 

A bit sad when they also have a memorial to fallen idiots getting caught out during the Sanfermines. 

The Bulls are stampeding up here and then turning left...

...along this narrow street...

...across this intersection. We are looking back here as...

...and they will be coming down this path to Plaza de Toros, ie the bullfighting ring where they are met with a gruesome end. 

I found the whole running of the Bulls thing fascinating including that the tradition continues to today. 

I suppose it is a big drawcard to the town, gives it publicity and produces valuable tourist dollars. 

I then bumped into 2 familar faces, Daina and Fiona. We decided to go to Bar Iruna on Plaza de Castillo for a refreshing drink and a pincho (as they spelt it on the menu). 

Bar Iruna is where the author Ernest Hemingway used to hang out. 

Plaza de Castillo is a central square where people go to eat and drink these days. A sort of Plaza Mayor. 

We checked out the inside first...

And here we are...

...before settling on sitting outside on the plaza. 

The lovely ladies are not Daina to the left and Fiona to the right. 

Me and Fiona. 

Daina being serious. 

The ladies then had plans for mass and Gregorian chants so I returned to base for some downtime. 

Later, Fiona and I went out for drinks and then, as we thought but did not work out, dinner. 

We had a couple of wines at a place called Rio as per the hostel reception lady's recommendation. 

It looked like we were the only tourists there. The rest of the punters looked like local. Love that. 

Dinner, yes. The Spaniards eat late, very late. In fact, walking up and down our local streets, we found nothing other than    pinchos and the local Chinese restaurant Hong Kong with exactly 0 customers. 

There was however a place selling crepes. Emergency fuel... 

Here is the before photo:

And the after photo:

Yep, the lovely non "menú pel peregrino" meal that I was so looking forward to came to... A crepe. 

Serious rethinking required for tomorrow's eating...