Finally Walking the Camino!

Spent the early evening touring the old city centre of Pamplona. Jim saw the street where the running of the bulls occurs. This killed the last vestige of any desire he had to run with bulls in such narrow confines. The old fortified walls of Pamplona are still well preserved. Jim has not seen more formidable forticiations of a European city other than Luxembourg City.

We went to dinner after that and met a group of Irish couples who are travelling the Camino in style. They are walking for the next week, carrying no packs. They then stay at a nice hotel at the end of each day. Wendy and I are wondering why we didn´t come up with this idea ourselves. Just kidding!

We began our walk out of Pamplona this morning at about 7:30 a.m. Within a minute, we came upon a couple from Ontario who were starting their fifth day on the Camino. From there, it was passing or being passed by 30 walkers during the morning. All ages, all sizes, all languages (well, German, Spanish, French, Korean, English, and Italian). The universal greeting regardless of language is usually "Buen camino"! (have a good camino walk). There were also cyclists riding heavy duty mountain bikes.

It was a challenging first day. We climbed roughly 300 metres over 4.5 kilometers, The views were amazing, however. We could hear wind turbines turning from the top of the hills we were climbing. During the last few kilometers today, we descended a very steep and rocky pathway. By the time we reached Uterega, almost 17 kilometers from Pamplona, we decided it had been a first day of walking and booked into the local auberge.

The facilities are very modern and comfortable. We have a bunkbed in a dormitory with about 20 people. Most of our room mates are German.