Estella Update

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1) A sweet lady who was soaking her feet in ice, filled a plastic bag with ice for my knees.

2) Deeper humility: At the urging of fellow Pilgrims tonight, I’ve decided to send my bag by taxi tomorrow to the next town. Walking without the weight will help my knees heal. 

I’ve also added some photos of some of the people we’ve been travelling with. This table represents Japan, Israel, Denmark, Italy, South Africa and Australia. 

Estella, I Love You!

onmyway

Spain is beautiful! We’ve walked through mountains, valleys, charming villages, bustling cities, along rivers and highways, through farmlands and vineyards, up and down and up and down.  We’ve had many promises that after the first two days the walk levels out. And every day we go up and down and up and down. Ryan and I have a similar pace. Fast. We’re not rushing. We’re enjoying the scenery, stopping for photos and visiting with other pilgrims. We just walk fast. I’ve felt strong along the way and still do. Yesterday though, my knees started bothering me. Ugh! So, we stopped and I taped them. That seemed to help out but as I descended the hill from our albergue (hostel) this morning, I was walking at a meer hobble. Three Spanish women quickly passed me and one of them said something that I felt was directed at me. Ryan told me later she had said, “Ugh! Thank God for good knees!” 😫 Wait! I have good knees!! They’re just a little mad at me right now! The truth is I hate admitting that I ever have anything physically wrong with me. I’m the one who either won’t go to the doctor or goes and says, “What does he know?” and throws away the prescription. But this is different. I want to finish this walk. So tossing my pride aside, we stopped at the first farmacia we came to and I bought a brace for each knee. And, of course, it’s the first day the weather has been nice so I’m wearing my hiking skirt. No hiding the knee braces. There they are loud and proud! I guess a dose of humility is good for the soul! Madeleine L’Engle said, “Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.” I am currently completely concentrating on the Camino de Santiago. 

Our final destination today was Estella. As we entered the town I was so, so happy to have finished the walk and exclaimed, “Estella, I love you!” But as I walked through this little city I discovered I did in fact love it! In actuality, along with St Jean Pied de Port, it’s my favorite so far! 

Morning coffee in Puenta la Reina and a  countryside chapel on the way to Estella.

Beautiful Estella, Spain


Our sleeping space tonight. 

The Path to Pamplona

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Our night in Zubiri was fun filled with our new community of fellow Perregrinos. We had dinner and lots of laughs with 3 girls from Italy, 1 from Australia and Blanche from North Carolina who we had met our first night. 
Today’s walk was fairly muddy and sloppy but the walk through small villages and farms was enchanting. It seemed odd when we left the peaceful countryside and came into the city of Pamplona. As we walked down the sidewalk, we came up behind two elderly women with canes. Hearing us, one of them turned around and when she saw we were pilgrims tapped her cane on the ground near my walking sticks. She smiled at me then put her hands together as if she were touching my face. She then puckered her lips. It was then I realized she wanted to greet me with the European double cheek kiss. It was very sweet! After the greeting I pulled back smiling and said, “Gracious!”. She looked at me and firmly said, “No!” I looked at her questioning and she made it clear that I had made the mistake of not kissing her cheeks back. So I did, which seemed to make her happy. She smiled, then immediately pointed to her friend. And so I had the pleasure of greeting two sweet Basque women! 
Not long after this, another woman came up beside us and walked with Ryan then gave us a Camino blessing as she walked away. It was a good day!