Today we left the city of Pamplona and headed though largely agricultural lands on the way to Puente la Reina. We were joined today by Dal, Julie and Helena (in a “Paul” t-shirt).
In the winter of 75–74 BC, the area that is now Pamplona, served as a camp for the Roman general Pompey in the war against Sertorius. He is considered to be the founder of Pompaelo, “as in Pompeiopolis” which became Pamplona in modern Spanish. The Vascones were a pre-Roman tribe who inhabited a territory that covers today’s Basque Country and had it as their chief town – they called it Iruña, translating to ‘the city’. Pamplona is still known locally by it’s Basque name of Iruña.
The scenery starting out today was different as we walked through a mainly agricultural landscape of Wheat, Mustard, Pea and Bean fields. Watching the wind ripple through the wheat fields was quite mesmeric.
It seemed that every hill in the area had a small village, and accompanying church, and in the village of Zariquiegui was this church – Iglesia de San Andrés – built in the second half of the 12th century. It also had a lovely stamp for the pilgrim passport.
We then encountered the only hill of the day (the elevation profile at the end of todfay’s entry makes it look worse than it was). The top was pretty windy, which would explain the long line of wind turbines on the ridge (they are really noisy when up close) and we were afforded a view of a splendid vista, albeit approached by a steep rocky path.
As we continued our, for now anyway, gradual descent we passed through several towns – all with their own wonderful churches, and saw more evidence of the religious nature of the trek.
We finished up the walk for the day, arriving into Puente la Reina, and making our way down the Calle Mayor to the Hotel Bidean.
