5 Trinidad de Arre to Muruzabal - 15 miles

 Don’t let the “15 miles” in the title fool you. 

It was actually a little longer than that. We left the old albergue and headed to Pamplona. Walking around the city added a few more miles, so my distance tracking app had us ending the day at 18.5 miles. Whatever distance we walked…it was a long day, but a day with some nice sights along the way. 

After a stop at the cathedral in Pamplona, we had breakfast at a little (and delicious) pastry shop. 

We then meandered around, seeing the cafe where Ernest Hemingway did a lot of his writing.

Unfortunately (maybe fortunately) we are about a month early for the running of the bulls. But, I got to get a picture with one of them (see for yourself). 

Then, it was time to get back in the Camino (after we figured out where to find it in downtown Pamplona.) Most of the Camino takes you through small, sleepy towns. You sometimes wonder if anyone actually lives there.  We are also now in a much more agricultural area.

The highlight of today was making it to Alto de Perdon. It is the top of a mountain where the views are breathtaking and there is a metal sculpture of pilgrims. It is famously in the movie “The Way”. 

The descent was steep but nit as bad as others. However, it was pretty hot. We had originally planned to go a but further but decided to stay in Muruzabal when the albergue had rooms for us. It worked out because dinner was paella which was quite delicious after a long day. 

Getting into the albergue was a little fun. We went inside and didn’t find anyone. I said, “Hola,” a couple times and finally another pilgrim showed up. After we both tried to speak in broken Spanish, we realized that we could both speak English because we are both Americans!  She said that the owner of the albergue also owned the bar around the corner. We could go there to find him. We went “around the corner” (which was really around and down the street - luckily it was the only show in town that night) and found him. Before taking us back to the hotel, he went to a back door, looked up a set of stairs and yelled, “Ma! Ma!”  After all, someone had to mind the bar while he took care of us. 

Buen Camino!