Today was a very busy day! We started out by leaving Logoño headed for Obanos, another stop on the Camino de Santiago.There, all of us but Irv hopped out and walked from Obanos to Puente de la Reina, another stop on the Camino. It was only about a rwo km walk and quite easy, but we could then say we had walked part of the Camino! While we were walking, the bus had dropped Irv off in PDLR where we reconnected with him.
From Puente de la Reina we headed over to Olite to check out the palace there. It was built in the 13th century and served as the palace of the Kingdom of Navarre.It is an extensive structure with many towers and lookouts. While we were there, a group of school children were also visiting and it was fun to watch how excited they were to be there!
From Olite, it was on to Pamplona where we were to grab a quick bite and have time to explore the city a bit. However, our attempt to eat at Cafe Iruna, where Ernest Hemingway apparently hung out, was thwarted by a very rude and indifferent waiter. After sitting for at least 20 minutes before being asked for our order and then being told we either all had to pay cash or all by card, we opted to try another place and ended up at a pizza restaurant with a much more accommodating waiter and great pizza. Unfortunately that left us hardly any time at all to explore. Luis did show us where the bulls run and how they managed to control the bulls and keep them more-or-less contained.
On then to San Sebastián, where we checked in, did a quick turn around and then headed out for our Food tour with our host Iri. She was a lovely young woman, very bubbly and very proud to share her knowledge, not only of the food, but of this culture of the Basque region of Spain. We hit four different places and had several different kinds of pintxos as well as trying out the local cider and the local wine, txakoli. Again some of the pintxos I quite liked and others not so much. The first bar we went to was apparently the one where the first pintxo originated, which was called a “Gilda” after a 1947 movie starring Rita Hayworth. We ended up having a delicious dessert, called a pantxineta, at the last stop. Yummy!
After the tour we headed over to Concha Beach which is a beautiful sandy beach that forms a curve at the edge of the old town and a popular place to hang out. Hopefully we will get back there tomorrow.The rest of the group walked back to the hotel, but Irv and I took a cab, since his back is still giving him great grief.