Pamplona

Pamplona

Unusual use of shells

Jed on the way to Pamplona

This is day 3 of the Camino and we are sitting in the new bus station, intending to travel to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum there. This is proving to be a problematic plan, as bus travel is infrequent on Sundays and the museum is closed on Mondays. If we take the 4 pm bus which arrives in Bilbao at 6 we have 2 hours before the museum closes at 8. That´s our only window of opportunity. Think we can pull it off? Tune in to find out....right now we´re going to grab some lunch. Must hurry as everything closes from about 2-4 for siesta and it´s already 1:30...I play to get back to finish this entry when we return.

OK. We´re back. I have about 15 minutes to finish this post, and this computer takes forever to download photos. We ended up eating at a fast food concession at the station, as all the restaurants outside were closed. The concession here is owned by KFC, and the options were KFC, Pizza Hut and one that had paella, beer and other stuff. Not too great, but you know what they say about beggars.

I can add some nationalities to the prior lost. We now have met Norwegians, Swedes, Belgians, South Africans, and even a lady from Bolivia- but not a single American or Canadian! Maybe later they'll turn up. Anyway, yesterdays walk was harder than I thought it would be because I have sore feet and because I was expecting it to be easier. Also got very little sleep in Roncesvalles because the beautifully remodeled "new" hostel has no silent closers on the doors, and they shut with a huge BANG and our beds were right near the bathrooms. But we made it to Lorrasoana (about 17 miles) and had a quite good Pilgrim meal with some of the other travelers. That was in stark contrast to the Pilgrim meal in Roncesvalles, which had us thinking that we´d have to order off the more expensive menu in the future. I think they thought of the cheapest and easiest way to feed the unsuspecting Pilgrims- potato soup, greasy french fries, choice of plain grilled trout (no seasoning or sauce) or 2 fried eggs, and a yoghurt served in the plastic container. Not a trace of color in the whole meal (unless you count egg yolks. Yuck!

A line of caterpillars

A couple hilights. One- we saw many caterpillars on the trail, which wouldn´t be significant except that they traveled in long lines- head to toe, if caterpillars had toes. They attack the pine trees and cause a lot of damage. The second is a little gaffe of mine that I don´t mind sharing. It´s the practice here for people who you meet along the way to "sign off" with "Bien Camino" (have a good "Camino"). Yesterday I reverted to my Mexican restaurant Spanish and sang out a friendly "Bueno Comida" (good food). Maybe I was hungry!

So our bus is soon to depart and I have 3 minutes left on this computer. It´s painfully slow loading photos. Hopefully the next one will be faster.