Day 5: Puente la Reina - Estella (22 kms)

I start early today, about 7:50 am and am thinking of just snacking along the way, but I am immediately sidetracked right outside the albergue by a warm and welcoming cafe.  I go in for a cup of cafe con leche, a pan neapolitana (a chocolate croissant, pan chocalat in France) and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Great breakfast!  I cross over the Puente de las Peregrinos on the way out of Puente la Reina.

From there the trails pass through olive trees and vineyards up to Maneru, then to Ciraqui.  I stop for an hour at noon for a lunch of tortillas con jamon and tortas patatas in Lorca.  From here, I continue walking, this time with 2 British pilgrims, Caroline and Joanna, to Estella.  They are friends who first met as English teachers in Japan and live now in different places, but who come together for a trip every so often.  We arrive in Estella around 3 pm and check in at the  Albergue Municipal.  Happiness!-- we get bottom bunks!  It is not raining when we get there but it starts raining about 4:30 pm. It is a nice small town.

I join the 2 British girls for dinner.  We get some groceries at a nearby store and cook at the albergue kitchen -- fusilli pasta with a bottled tomato sauce and canned mushrooms, washed down with 2 cans each of Spanish San Miguel beer.  All of this cost us only 3 euros each. Early to bed.

Breakfast!

Puente de la Reina

 
 

Blue and copper door

Olive tree orchard

Fountain at Lorca

 

Nearing Estella

Once in a while, you see scrawled political messages showing Basque unrest -- Estella's Basque name is Lizarra

 

Buen Pan, Excelente Agua y Vino, Carne y Pescado, Llena de Toda Felicidad (Good Bread, Excellent Water and Wine, Meat and Fish, All Full of Happiness)

 

Iglesia de San Miguel, Estella