Zubiri to Pamplona

We have a wrench in the plan. It changes everything. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday started well again. I think we were in a very nice groove of hiking by 9am and we felt like we were making good time. Jon has had some feet issues that has slowed him down a bit but he’s a trooper and isn’t complaining. He bought new boots for the trip and didn’t quite break them in enough. Also he has a heat rash all over his feet which also has turned into blisters. On the other hand Aiden brought a pair of hole-y sneakers (which I was horrified to see him wearing when it was too late at the airport because I asked him if he needed new shoes). His feet are fine and so are the rest of ours. Go figure. We got a stamp a few hours into our hike by a volunteer at a church who was also giving advice. Our goal was to stay ahead of the ladies group who had no image of athleticism but somehow was always on our tail catching up to us when we had just seen them doing yoga in a town square. How do they do it?!

We always seem to drag after lunch and the last two hours are rough. But we made it to Pamplona by 2pm and checked into our air conditioned hotel!! Yay!!! Ollie and I went to the train station to get jet out reservations for Sarria. Here’s the snafu. No reservations available. Not for a week! We can’t get on a train!!!! The renfe site wouldn’t let me book the tickets ahead of time using my Eurail pass so it had to be in person. I worried about this part of the trip but assumed they could add more cars on a train if it fills up. Nope. I think it’s a combination of fires south blocking the trail, pope announcement that he’s going to Santiago, and maybe some construction on a route. It’s the trifecta of problems for us. In fact there are no trains to northwest spain at all. So… what do we do? Here’s our plan so far. We booked another night in Pamplona to rest and decide. Today we talk to the pilgrim’s office and make a solid plan. To be continued….Read more