We ate breakfast at Café del Camino for 10.50€: tostadas con tomate y aciete (toasted bread with tomatoes and oil); orange juice; MT coffee/Don green tea (4.50€ each) plus milk. At grocery store, we bought an apple, a peach, tomatoes, yogurt, and filberts (6.26€).
8:41 AM – Zubiri: Estrella Galicia beer tap in Café del Camino.
8:44 AM – Zubiri: Café del Camino – tostadas con tomate y aciete.
We departed at 9:30 am. Shortly after Zubiri, we met two Spanish ladies picking a small, round purple fruit (probably plum) from a tree by the path. When we asked what it was and didn’t understand the Spanish word, one lady made a motion of something coming out of her bottom (meaning it was good for going to the bathroom). They gave us one to share. While we were talking with them, Don found another one and gave it to the ladies (which impressed them greatly). We saw (our first) poppies around Larrasoaña (aka Larrasoaina, pop 200). We also saw what we had called “globe weeds” last year, which had partly changed color; this was about the only time we saw these, which were so common last year. The same with poppies. So apparently, their season had passed by August.
11:58 AM – “globe weeds” that had partly changed color.
We stopped in Zuriáin (pop 18) 12:10-12:35 for a snack at Posada de Zuriáin: MT salad/Don bocadillo [sandwich] with egg and ham (6.50€); agua del grifo [tap water] was free.
MT 12:38 PM – Zuriáin: Don with metal pilgrim sculpture at Posada de Zuriáin; men and girl in background were playing a game tossing balls into a box.
MT 12:39 PM – Zuriáin: MT with metal pilgrim sculpture at Posada de Zuriáin.
We got their sello, with the same stick figure.
After Irotz (pop 18), we walked on a rock path above a paved, wide path parallel to it in a park (parque), as we did last year in the mud (we could still see places where pilgrims had slid down the mud to the lower path).
1:28 PM – MT and yellow arrows on road.
Right after Irotz, we met a lady from Minnesota on the trail. We passed her climbing steep hills, but met her again later on. We followed Camino markers that led us away from the N-135 highway onto a high point and then back down (see photo of poor marking). It seemed an unnecessary detour and climb, except for the view.
2:06 PM – MT at fork on high path where marker was not clear about which way the Camino went (the white and red GR marker indicated a turn to left).
2:06 PM – Don found a yellow arrow on the BACK side of that marker, which led us back down (same as GR) instead of farther up into the woods.
We arrived at Trinidad de Arre (Arre, pop 993) at 3 pm.
2:55 PM – Trinidad de Arre: MT on medieval bridge over Río Ulzama.
2:55 PM – Trinidad de Arre: MT on bridge; waterfall and closed mill on left.
2:55 PM – Trinidad de Arre: view across bridge.
2:56 PM – Trinidad de Arre: mill (from bridge).
MT 2:57 PM – Trinidad de Arre: Don crossing bridge (after MT).
MT 3:21 PM – Trinidad de Arre: white flowers.
We entered Pamplona (pop 200,000) at 3:45. Because we had spend an extra day in Pamplona in 2013, we planned to pass through it quickly and walk farther this day.
Pamoplona (aka Iruña in Basque) is a vibrant univeristy city that retains its close historical connections to the Camino. In the winter of 75-74 BC, the area served as a camp for the Roman general Pompey. He is considered to be the founder of Pompaelo, which became Pamplona in modern Spanish. Actually, even before that, it was the chief town of the Vascones (a pre-Roman tribe, likely the ancestors of the present-day Basques to whom they left their name), and they called it Iruña, meaning “the city.” In the 5th-8th centuries AD, Pamplona was ruled by the invading Visigoths, who overcame the Basques. When the Moors invaded in 711, the Visigoths were fighting the Basques in Pampolona; when the Muslin troops reached the Basque-held Pamplona in 714, the Basques brokered a treaty with the Arab commanders, and the Basques south of the Pyrenees offered little resistance to the Moorish thrust. In 750, Pamplona put itself under the protection of Charlemagne and managed to expel the Arabs temporarily. In 778, the town was in the hands of a Basque local or a Muslim rebel faction loyal to the Franks at the moment of Charlemagne’s crossing of the Pyrenees to the south. However, on his retreat from the failed expedition, Charlemagne also suffered an attack from the Basques in central Navarra. Then he stopped at Pamplona and ordered his troops to destroy the walls and probably the town, despite his previous assurance that the town would not be harmed. The Navarrese took their revenge, ambushing and slaughtering the retreating Frankish army as it fled over the Pyrenees through the mountain pass of Roncesvalles in 778. In the famous Battle of Roncevaux (Roncesvalles) Pass, Charlemagne’s rear guard was defeated by the Basques, and Roland, commander of the rear guard was killed. This is the episode depicted in the 11th-century Song of Roland, although the anonymous French author chose to cast the aggressors as Moors rather than Basques. Defenceless Pamplona was captured by the Muslims soon after that and held by them until 801. In 824, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pamplona and later of the Kingdom of Navarra. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims were enticed to settle in the city under special status.
3:42 PM – Pamplona: MT at sign entering city.
MT 3:43 PM – Pamplona: Don at sign entering city.
4:12 PM – Pamplona: – Pamplona: MT and NE corner of city wall.
Near
the northeast corner of the city wall, we passed through the Portal de Francia.
Despite the drawbridge that gives
it a medieval appearance, the Portal de
Francia dates from only 1753.
After
passing through that outer gate, we continued along the outside of the wall
until we reached a second gate, Portal
Zumalacarregui, which led through the city wall, into the Calle del Carmen.
This gate, in the original wall
of the fortified Iruña, was previously called Puerta del Abrevador (14th
century) and Puerta de Francia (18th century), before it received
its current name Portal Zumalacarregui
in 1939. The shield above this gate bears the coat of arms of Carlos I of
Castilla and IV of Navarra (Carlos V of the Holy Roman Empire); this was added
when the gate was rebuilt in 1553. (Because the outer gate bears a name that
was previously associated with the inner gate, many normally reliable sources mislabel
one or the other.)
4:18 PM – Pamplona: Portal de Francia.
4:19 PM – Pamplona: Portal Zumalacarregui (recently defaced with paint) into the city.
MT had a sore Achilles, but we walked through the city on the Camino route as far as the Civican center on Pio XII street, where we had used a computer last year. However, when we reached it, we found that it was closed on Sunday. Since MT was in bad pain by this time and this was already well past the old town and still quite a distance from the next possible stop in Cizur Major, we checked at a nearby bus stop.
Then, at 4:50, we decided to take a bus to Cizur Mayor (aka Zizur Mayor, aka Zizur Nagusia in Basque, pop 14,084) for 1.35€ each. (Although the village of Cizur Menor is actually on the Camino route, guidebooks said there were only albergues there and advised to head over to Cizur Mayor for other lodging.) The bus didn’t stop (or ask) at the first bus stop in Cizur Mayor but only later, when another lady wanted to get off. We asked that lady which way to go for a hotel, which she said was back toward the first bus stop. She helped us find the modern 4-star AC Hotel Zizur Mayor (by Marriott). The receptionist said the rates Don had found online were only if you reserved 3 days ahead; her best rate was 55€ for a double room or 66€ with breakfast, and their restaurant was closed on weekends. So we asked some ladies on the street for directions to Hostal Ardoi (formerly Hostal Nekea [still on the sign]), but found it was closed (looked like permanently). We asked another lady how to get to Hotel Casa Azcona (just a block away); their double was 58€ without breakfast; their restaurant opened for dinner at 8:30 pm; and the menu prices were high (13€ for salad). So we went back to the AC Hotel Zizur Mayor, checked in, and got their sello. The receptionist called a nearby Boca-Pizza restaurant (5 minute walk) for us and said they opened at 7:15 for pasta, and the rest at 8 pm. Our hotel had air conditioning and free WiFi.
7:21 PM - Cizur Mayor: AC Hotel Zizur Mayor exterior.
We ate dinner at Boca-Pizza restaurant; we shared a large mixed salad (6.30€), Espaghettis Bolognesa (9€ each), bottle of Navarra wine (6.80€), and bread (1.20€) for total of 32.30€ and left 2€ tip.
MT 8:31 PM - Cizur Mayor: Don with wine bottle at Boca-Pizza.
Then we went back to AC Hotel Zizur Mayor by way of a park with huge modern arches spanning a traffic circle where we crossed over the A-12 highway.
MT 9:11 PM - Cizur Mayor: arches in park between restaurant and hotel, near sunset.
MT 9:12 PM - Cizur Mayor: arches in park between restaurant and hotel, near sunset.
MT 9:17 PM - Cizur Mayor: arches in park between restaurant and hotel, near sunset.
MT 9:25 PM - Cizur Mayor: glass sink in our room at AC Hotel Zizur Mayor.
MT 10:12 PM - Cizur Mayor: free minibar listed in book in our room at AC Hotel Zizur Mayor (we later found out it wasn’t free, but we hadn’t used anything yet).
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