The Jones Also Rises (and Walks)

It's June! This must mean it's time for our annual Camino. For 2025, we're going old-school, on the Camino Francés- the famous route that is assumed to be "The Camino." We last walked the Camino Francés in 2021, from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela. That section of the Camino Francés is the final 120 kilometers of the full 800 kilometer path, and the one that's most commonly walked by tourists and noobs. I know...how basic of us.

The section of the Camino Francés that we're walking this week is 107 kilometers, from Pamplona to Navarrete. We've never been to Pamplona before, a city made famous by Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" (which described the annual running of the bulls), and the pintxos are supposed to be amazing in this region...so this should be a fantastic week.

In the late morning, we took a high-speed train ninety minutes from Barcelona to Zaragoza, then transferred to a bus for the two-hour ride to Pamplona. We arrived at 6pm and immediately noticed... it's a bit toasty here. Normal June temperatures in Pamplona are in the 70s/20°C, but today it is, holy shit, 100°F/36°C. I'm melting.

We spent the very warm evening crawling Pamplona's famous pintxo bars, starting with Café Iruña. In the 1920s, this was Hemingway's favorite hangout, and where his characters would gather in "The Sun Also Rises." And if you walk to the back of this stunning art nouveau café and notice a door near the toilets...and open that door...you will enter into a teeny bar area (closed to the general public) that has a life-sized statue of Hemingway at the bar. It is incredibly cool.

We hit three other pintxo bars, starting with Café Roch, in business since 1898. This bar is famous for its "fritos pamploneses" (like croquettes but with a tempura coating), and we sampled the mushroom and the jamón options. My verdict: Croquettes are better. So there.

We visited Baserriberri, formerly Michelin-listed, for possibly the weirdest pintxos I've ever had: Duck molé rolled in a tiny waffle, and covered with Cocoa Krispies; and a chorizo croquette with... chocolate sauce. Weird, but in a good way. I think.

Our final stop was Bar Fitero, where we abandoned the super creative pintxos and went old-school, ordering grilled foie gras and poached egg pintxos. At 11pm, our evening was over; unlike most of Spain, Pamplona closes up early. But we have all day tomorrow ro explore Pamplona before beginning our Camino on Thursday!Read more