We woke up early today to clear skies. Although it was still quite cool, it was a welcome change from the wet weather we'd been experiencing. We headed out about 8, and by 10:30 we'd covered our first 10 km and were in the village of Monreal. Our Spanish friends were sitting outside the bar enjoying a beer and sandwich; we decided a sandwich would be great for us. We bought two, one to eat on the spot and another wrapped up for a snack later.
A few kilometers past Monreal we passed a man on the trail who turned out to be the village priest. He engaged us in a long conversation about politics and religion. It turned out he had studied Judaism and the Hebrew language extensively; before we parted he blessed us in the name of Elohim and also in the name of Saint James.
Today's stage mostly stayed just above the farm fields along one side of this valley. Although it was a fairly straight shot, we were walking uphill or down (often very steeply) almost all of the time.
A little before 1 we stopped in the small village of Yarnoz for a break next to the small 13th century church. There was a great flat rock in the sun, just perfect for eating our remaining sandwich. You can just make out our trail in the picture below, snaking along between the farm fields and wooded area above.
As the day went on, we encountered more of the mud we'd experienced the day before, but not nearly as pernicious. Still, it made for slow going, and the 15 km from Monreal to our destination took much longer than we'd expected.
We rolled into Tiebas (which is a bit south of Pamplona) a little before 4. The albergue here is quite new, and must be one of the nicest and best equipped anywhere. In addition to wifi and a full kitchen there is a washer and dryer, and the attendant ran a load of laundry for us. This is the first time our things have been washed other than by hand in the sink since arrival in Spain.
The town itself is mostly very new, and based on two large rock quarries just above the town. The main attraction is the ruin of a 13th century castle (really, just a few remaining walls), which we explored before heading up to the local bar for dinner.
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