Today the weather was perfect, things fell into place, and we had an excellent Camino from Villatuerte to Estella. We walked a total of 27 kilometers, even going a few over our goal as we sought a pensíon for the evening.
First thing in the morning, we had some coffee and hit the road, anticipating an open cafe just a mile or two down the road, and there it was! Fortified by a tortilla española, we crossed through Punta la Reina and its famous Romanesque bridge. Now the Camino continued to wander up and down the local hill towns, but there were longer flat stretches with decent trail surface. We did walk on an original Roman road, which was historical but dreadful. I can’t blame the Romans: they only guaranteed their work for one millennium, and now it’s a full millennium past it’s wear out date, so of course it was a wreck!
We had a delicious lunch of bocadilla, another tortilla española, and several bowls of fresh lentil soup…oh, and a cerveza, don’t forget the cerveza. We skipped past Villatuerte and landed in Estella in a nice little pensíon.
None of which is to say we aren’t exhausted, a little blistered and sun-burned, and emotionally fatigued. But today was more like the Camino I envisioned, and less like some weird re-creation of Beast Barracks (Google it).