Day: July 20, 2023

Lorca to Estella

Walked today: 5.7 mi Camino2023: 52.3 mi

We started walking earlier this morning, at 6:00. It was also a cool 61F with a nice cool, dry breeze all the way.

We stopped in Villatuerta for breakfast.

Waiting for 7:30 opening (arrived at 7:15… it’s the only place for breakfast between Lorca and Estella)
the medieval (13th century) Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de las Asunción as we exited Villatuerta.

then continued on to Estella, reaching the edge of town at 9:15.

Linda’s reading glasses broke on our last night in Obanos, but today was the first opportunity to find a “farmacia” to search for a replacement. On the way into town, we stopped at the first pharmacy we saw and quickly got her some new (red) glasses for 16.90€ with the patient assistance of the pharmacist.

We walked on to the Plaza de los Fueros and found a comfortable place to sit, ordered a glass of OJ (Linda) and cafe con leche (Jim) and waited for our room to be ready.

Linda (testing her new reading glasses) waiting for our room to be ready

At 10 o’clock we rang the bell at Hostal Cristina and were admitted. We quickly checked in and began enjoying our Estella home for the next 20 hours.

the entrance to Hostal Cristina… a pencion/rooming house for local residents and transient residents like ourselves
our comfy, spacious room
our view from one of three balconies in our room
our corner, second floor room as seen from the street.

Estella is a charming town that has become a favorite for us. We have stayed in Hostal Cristina every Camino (2014, ’17, ’19, ’22 and 2023, staying two nights and using taxi service in 2019 to advance to the next village when rooms were not available.

For us, it’s a town of positive surprises. By mere accident we have stayed here during Estella’s annual festival on two occasions. These festivals included thousands of revellers, giant dancing puppets (gigantes) and running of the bulls, marching bands, etc. And today is the second time we have stayed here on a Thursday, the town market day, which has been a routine for 900 years.

At mid-afternoon we had lunch at a favorite local restaurant on the town square.

Linda had a mixed salad: shrimp, corn, mango, lettuce, pineapple, tomatoes and a citrus dressing. Jim had a plate of fried foods: squid, shrimp, chicken, oysters and peppers. We both had a glass of Navarre wine.

Last year we chronicled the Thursday market in our blog. Today, we took a photo of the aftermath of the market after a miraculous 1 hour pack-up and disappearance.

In less than and hour, all the vendors had packed up their wares and disappeared. And hundreds of residents were gone, perhaps for siestas.

After lunch we returned to our room to nap/relax and blog and to give our full stomachs time to settle.

Even with a late setting sun, our body clocks were winding down and so we called it a day, another enjoyable day for Camino2023.