Friday-Saturday, August 27-28, 2021

Estella

Bike Route: Pamplona to Estella, 30 miles, 2700 feet of climb

We named Pamplona the City of Grumpy Old Men. I'm sure it was partly because we were tired from the hard ride the day before, but we didn't find Pamplona charming or friendly. We left our apartment before 9:00, planning to ride around Old Town on our way out of the city. The streets were already ridiculously congested and everyone seemed to be in a hurry and not in a good mood. After the fourth old man grumbled at us for trying to stop and take pictures, we gave up and made our way to the bikeway into the countryside.

Once on the bikeway, we met only nice and friendly people and our mood lifted. Even though this day was relatively short and we had only half the amount of climbing, I found it difficult. We were really happy to get to Estella, a small and simple town with fewer people and a much slower pace.

Estella was founded in 1090 and is a major waypoint on the Camino de Santiago. In the Middle Ages, it was actually three separate villages, each with its own fortified church and government. Having a large population of skilled local craftspeople, it drew the attention of Franco kings and attracted enough wealth to become a center of Romanesque architecture.

Our apartment was in a 500-year-old stone-and-timber building on the quiet side of the river, right on the camino. It was so nice and comfortable that we could have stayed a week. But we had only two nights--one day of rest. And we took advantage of it.

Our hosts, Dina and Raoul, were incredible. Raoul was an architect for about 15 years, but after the economic collapse in 2008, he was not able to get large, interesting projects. About six or seven years ago, he joined with other local businessmen and founded a company to export local products (canned pimentos, anchovies, white asparagus). They have exclusive contracts with large importers in China, Russia, and Thailand. The company, and Raoul, are featured in a coffee table book about the area.

Before we arrived, Dina sent a message asking us to please use the "sleepers" in the apartment, because of Covid. We were a little puzzled, but we agreed to use the sleeper sofas instead of the bed. After we got into the apartment, we found that the bed was all made up with fresh sheets, and the sofas were not sleepers. We scratched our heads, and finally decided to just sleep in the bed and take whatever negative review we might get on Airbnb for disobeying the rules. As we headed out to get groceries, we saw "slippers" on a shelf by the door. Sometimes things get a little mixed up when Google translates.

Anyway, we completely enjoyed our down day in Estella. We bought ground sirloin, peppers, mushrooms, tortilla patata, milk, juice, mineral water, and all kinds of other stuff, and cooked most of our meals. We did laundry. We roughed out our route for the next week and made reservations for several more nights. We walked to each of the three churches and went through one that was open. We mingled with the pilgrims on the streets in our neighborhood. We slept and read and relaxed.

I got one quick photo in Pamplona before a grumpy old man scolded me for blocking part of the sidewalk.

Pamplona in our rearview mirror.

We are out of the mountains now. Fields of sunflowers stretch for miles, drying in the late August breeze.

This looks really dumb, but if you followed our 2019 blog, you may have seen a matching photo of our grandson, Josh, riding a little bike like this in a park in Germany. Ken couldn't help posing for this photo to send on to J2.

Estella is quiet and simple compared with the touristy, bigger coastal cities we have been in.

The old bridge as seen from the new bridge.

We enjoyed the simplicity of the Romanesque architecture. This was one of the fancier variations in Estella.

Oh, yes. This is olive country.

If you look closely, you will see laundry hanging in the window on the first floor. That's our apartment. Though it looks very plain from the river side, the apartment is beautiful inside, with original 17th-century beam ceilings and fireplace, and large windows.

Ken read about a coffee caramel candy that was created by an artisan in Estella in 1886 and is still made and sold in the region. It is called Dos Cafeteras, and he actually found it in this candy shop!