Day 41 Monreal to Puenta la Reina, 31 km

Well that was a long day! But a pretty good one for a last étape.

It was me who was the poorly behaved pilgrim this morning. After the speedy boys got up before 5 AM and then left around 5:30, I could not get back to sleep. So I decided to get up a little before six. I tried to be very quiet. I took all my stuff downstairs, I didn’t turn on all the lights downstairs (because the whole building is open and downstairs lights can be seen upstairs), I tried to minimize this squeaking of door, hinges, etc. And then at about 6 o’clock my alarm went off. Upstairs. While I was downstairs. Eyiiii. I thought I had turned it off. I also thought it had been on vibrate. So what was with that? Anyway, the Swiss people and the Dutch woman, who were all still in bed, were very nice about it. They normally get up really early, so it was not as bad as it might have been.

I left around 6:40. It was already light. And very chilly. About 5°. But the sky was amazing and the sun was just starting to come out. First hour or so was fantastic. Easy, easy, easy. And then for some reason, the people who designed the trail decided that we needed to go up and walk along the side of the mountain for the rest of the morning. So many ups and downs. Needless ups and downs, it seemed to me. Especially when I noticed there was a perfectly fine track all the way at the bottom - but I was too far along to join it. And then imagine how annoyed I was when I realized that the Wikiloc track that I had downloaded actually followed that track at the bottom. I had not noticed.

You finally get to come down at Tiebas, a little under halfway. Beautiful village. Very nice community bar, where I stopped for about an hour.

The landscape was becoming a weird mix of rural/industrial — quarries, some huge warehouses. Big construction site for a highway? Railway? It also got pretty hot. After Tiebas nothing open. Partway along , I just thought I would check the opening hours for the church.at Eunate. I had forgotten to do it before. Six weeks in Europe clearly not long enough to learn this lesson.. It was about 1:25 at the time. And Google Maps said it would take 35 minutes and that the church would close at 2:00. I went as fast as I could. And got there at about 9 minutes to 2. A triumph. The church is still as beautiful as it was when I saw it in 2000. Simple. Octagonal! They started building it in 1170. One of the things I like about it is that it is not on a hill!

For the last few kilometers, I took a variant which avoided going up the hill into Obanos. And that put off my intersecting with the.Camino Frances for a little bit longer. The path I took went a little bit south of the normal one. It crosses a tiny wooden bridge and comes into the town right by the old albergue where I stayed before (probably the only one at that time). I remember leaving behind a paperback novel that I finished. About ten seconds after crossing the bridge I started seeing pilgrims coming on the other route.

My main task in Puenta La Reina was to figure out where and how to get the bus and to get a stamp. The complications of this, but it all worked out in the end. I had thought I would have lunch, but the opening times of the tourist office made that a bit difficult. So I just had a quick beer and then I took the bus to.San Sebastian. Tomorrow morning at 6:25 I take a bus to Toulouse. And that’s that.

Knees were a bit unhappy today. But generally I am still very much in one piece! I can’t say I’m not tired. Let’s just say if I did this again there would be a few more rest days!!! Thanks for reading!もっと詳しく