Day 6 Estella to Sansol

Estella to Azqueta to Villamayor de Monjardin to Los Arcos to Sansol. 18 miles in 7 hours. 41,641 steps. Started this walk in the dark at 6:20 am. Also did most of my walk looking like an unhomed person with my still wet laundry pinned to my backpack. Just one of the realities of the Camino. Still not much open in smaller towns on a Monday, so I was starving by the time I reached Sansol - and had a 4 hour wait until the only dinner in town. Hilly in the first half, and then pretty flat but very dusty. Lots of grape vines, olive trees and poppies today. I’m really living the poppies and badly want to pick some. Oh - and artichoke fields, which I’ve never seen before. Passed the Irache Vineyard (a big one in Spain), where they have a wine spigot for the pilgrims. I stuck to the water spigot. Based on the amount of wine getting dumped or spit out, seems like I made the better choice. Can’t imagine they are putting their best wine out for free. Visited an incredible iron workshop, where the artist was hard at work on a sculpture. If I didn’t have to carry, a large bull sculpture would have been coming home with. I never knew such fine detail could be done in iron.
Stayed at the Palacio de Sansol, a restored palace from the 1200’s. A retired professor had grown up there and dreamed of restoring it for himself and pilgrims to use. Bought it for 30,000 euro and invested 1 million euro over 7 years. Lived in it for a year before he died. Now his son runs it. Our communal dinner was supposedly what the professor ate every night. Artichoke and jamon soup, followed by tortilla de potates and yogurt. It was good, but I would say the boredom of that meal might have been what did him in. Served by a woman who looked like my Aunt Cathy, and made me eat three bowls of soup. I didn’t dare say no even though two was quite enough. I fixed the broken washing machine door, so I was quite the hero and got to use the dryer for free. Which appeared to also be broken since my clothes were still damp after 1.5 hours. Fortunately the radiator was really hot and did the trick. Again, the glamour of backpack life.Læs mere