Breakfast at the Albergue and on the way at 7:00. The three of us made good progress and passed through Estella at about 10:00. which had been our original destination for tomorrow. It is a pretty town on the river Ega and I took quite a lot of pictures which will make up much of today's blog. We stopped for a cup of coffee and bought a sandwich for lunch. The path had been up and down through vineyards and fields and very pretty, on generally well maintained gravel trails. No mud!
A pilgrim had not been so lucky with their shoes!
A roadside fountain
We are still in Basque Country
It was a nice day, but a cold wind from the north west
Soon after Estella we passed a Fuente del Vino - the wine fountain. Across the road from an old monastery is a fountain with 2 taps. One gives water and the other red wine. All free and available for the passers-by. The wine is supplied by the wine processing plant next to it. We were happy to sample it and fill a bottle we had with us for consumption later. It was excellent. Soon after we stopped in a monastery garden and ate our sandwiches. There was a cold wind and the sun was sometimes behind the clouds so it was not very comfortable.
We soon set out again as our goal for tonight is Villamayor de Montjardin. The last section of the trail was fairly steep climb and I really struggled with it. My back was very painful but I finally made it. There was confusion trying to get a bed at the first Albergue so we asked at a second one and it was no problem. It is run by a Dutch foundation. The people are very friendly and we felt very much at home here. We arrived at about 2:15 pm after 27km today.
After settling in and unpacking on our beds I went down to a little shop I had passed on the way up to get some shower soap. The man in there was English, from Dorset. We chatted for a while and he asked how I was. I told him my back was killing me and he said he could fix it! I told him to go ahead. He got a pendulum and made me sit in a chair while he swung the pendulum with one hand and felt down my back with the other. He told me I had two pinched nerves and that he would manipulate them and correct them. I lay down on the floor of the shop and he pushed in a couple of places and told me he had taken care of it but to go back and lay down on the bed for a couple of hours which I did. I don't know if it worked but I have arranged to have my backpack transported to the place we plan to spend tomorrow night by a delivery service. It costs €7 and will give my back a chance to recover.
We had a wonderful dinner at the Albergue, family style with about 25 people. Three courses and wine as usual. They started with grace and at the end invited us to a Christian mediation at 8:30. Very appropriate for pilgrims, I will be interested to hear it.
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