Day 4 - Villava, Pamplona 12 miles
The very act of walking revived our spirits… We watched as the quarter moon sunk behind the mountains and the sun rose above them…
We began walking in the pitch black with only my quarter sized headlamp to guide us… The path was rocky and slippery, we had to be careful. After a couple of kilometers walking past a magnetite mine, we were once again in the lovely Spanish countryside. John had now joined Linda and I as we all walked at a comfortable pace. The other members of our group had all partnered off with someone who walked at their pace and we were all bumping into each other along the trail at different cafés and rest stops.
There had been no breakfast or coffee waiting for us at the gym this morning, so we were on the lookout for the next little village of Larasoana… Thankfully there was a tiny little tienda (store) open, and the cheerful Spanish owner served us our first delicious cafe con leche of the day with the requisite piece of toast… This apparently is all the Spanish eat for breakfast… We were very grateful though and took some fruit for the road as well.
As we started walking the day began to warm up, we were again greeted with beautiful blue skies, and lovely trails meandering in and out of forests, large fields and bypassing quaint little towns.
At the sweet little oasis we stopped at for our 2nd cafe con leche (I think this is the main fuel for the Spanish in the mornings), the three of us made a unanimous decision to book ahead for the night to secure a hotel room with a bath in Pamplona, to lick our wounds and recuperate from last night. Linda and I would share a room.
In fact as we continued our walk for the day, that instead of the flat terrain showed in the book, turned out to be yet another day of many ascents and descents, we further decided to take a rest day in Pamplona.
Walking into Villava, the town 3 miles before Pamplona, we realized the hotel we had booked was here. Instead of what seemed like a monumental task of rebooking a room, we decided to just stay put.
A hot bath, then a nap on the bed that felt like a giant marshmallow, sigh! the simple pleasures in life.
We decided to forgo a pilgrim dinner this evening (cheap but nutritious meals offered at many restaurants along the Camino) and go for the real deal. Good news, we had a fabulous dinner at the hotel restaurant. Bad news, they didn’t open until 8:30… The Spanish run on a completely different time table than we do.
