Somewhere Over The Windmills

"We have to walk over that ridge with the windmills", Ben said to me this morning as it was already heating up to full sweat level and we were walking out of Pamplona. "No way", I said. Today is a lengthy 14.8 miles, but those windmills looked farther away than that. Turns out those windmills are 1,000' climb, and when we passed them we were only half way to our destination of Puente la Reina.

It's hard to believe we were walking over the Pyrenees in the snow three days ago. The hot climb and equally tough decent was fun, and we met and spoke to many cool people along the way. We walked awhile with a father and daughter from Gig Harbor. Most enjoyable for me was the three generation local family we had lunch with in Zariquiegui.

We had a great evening in Puente la Reina (Bridge of the Queen). A tiny Spanish town with a lively main street and a famous bridge. The bridge is not called Queen's Bridge, but Puente Románico (Romanesque Bridge), and is known as Pilgrim's Bridge. Queen Muniadona, wife of King Sancho III was the queen who gave her name to the town and the bridge. She built the six-arched Romanesque bridge over the Arga in the 11th century for the use of pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela along the Camino.

RIP Franz. Buen Camino.

13th century Romanesque Iglesia de San Andres, heading into Zariquiegui

On the ridge at Alto de Perdon (might be Spanish for "ballbuster")

Countryside between Uterga and Muruzabal

Iglesia de San Esteban in Muruzabel

Dinner in Puente la Reina with La Iglesia de Santiago in the background

Puente Románico (a.k.a Pilgrim's Bridge)

Buen Camino!