Digital cameras lead to an enormous, growing volume of pictures. Fortunately they all come in sequence and going through them enables one to replay each day on the Camino, one after the other.
On Tuesday morning, May 13th we set out from Cizur Menor, just to the west of Pamplona. Our objective for the day was to climb the Cuesta del Perdon (the Hill of Forgiveness) and descend on the far side to Puente Reina. At the crest we could see for a distance of at least two days walk both to the east and to the west. We were also able to rest in the company of steel pilgrims, who were going our way.
The next day at Puente Reina we were given a personal tour of the Church of Santiago el Mayor by a young priest, who had just finished lecturing a group of thoroughly disinterested young Spanish teenagers who were on a school tour of the town. Javier Resano, our guide, took us through the church, through its treasury and into the cloister where few people ventured. A vessel worked in Mexican silver in the sixteenth century and presented to the church by one of the returning Conquistadores was the pride of the collection.
In Mañeru the auroros were at work. This tradition welcomes the day of San Isidore of the Labradores (labradores are workers in the fields) by having groups of workers singing in different quarters of the town.
I may already have posted the picture of this Roman bridge. On the Camino we were walking over the remains of several civilizations, not just the memories of Christian pilgrims. Arab, Jewish, Visigoth, Roman, Celt. We approached this bridge along a road whose stones were laid down by the Romans, who had also built the bridge.
The joys of the Camino include the many church cloisters encountered by the pilgrim. In Estella this small oasis, sheltered by the monumental Church of San Pedro de la Rua, insulated one from the bustle of the town and the demands of the Camino.
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