Walked today: 6.22 mi Camino2023: 58.5 mi
The first 2 miles were uphill and only took us to the edge of Estella. Fortunately, with our early start and a cool breeze of 59F it was very pleasant.
We stopped at the “fountain” at the Irache winery and Jim took a sample “for the road”, since we were walking, and not driving.
We walked on pavement for a half mile or so alongside a huge, multi-sport camping facility then walked through a shady forest then along the edge if wheat fields.
An imposing, conically shaped mountain, capped with the ruins of a medieval castle/fortress presented itself shortly after leaving Estella and is clearly the destination of today’s walk.
As we got closer to the mountain, we could see the base was surrounded by vineyards and small, local gardens, revealing the apparent origin of our destination’s name, Villamayor de Monjardin.
We’re staying in an apartment called Markiola. We discovered it in 2019 while staying at the albergue in the village. We stayed here in 2022 and wanted a repeat visit for 2023.
Markiola is relatively expensive at 128€. But for us it’s a “pilgrim paradise”.
Markiola consists of two floors: (1) a living area/kitchen and (2) bedrooms/ bathroom.
It comes furnished with a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner fixings for an enterprising self-catering pilgrim. It has a fully equipped kitchen and adequate amounts of dinnerware, silverware, glassware and utensils, pots and pans, a toaster and expresso maker. The full sized refrigerator is stocked with whatever you need and a nice bottle of wine from the nearby winery is provided. There is also a modern washing machine in the kitchen, so you can leave the next morning with a backpack of clean clothes.
The beds have firm, comfortable mattresses, the bathroom includes a generous sized shower and there are plenty of spaces and tables to put your stuff.
For dinner Linda had a yogurt from the fridge and Jim made a sandwich on a leftover baguette from lunch with sliced turkey and havarti. We made bocadillos of scrambled egg and cheese and stored them in the fridge tonight to take with us tomorrow morning for breakfast.
Our washed clothes are all dry and repacked.
So, with this last entry in today’s blog, we’ll call it a day with the creation of another great memory of today’s walk and our stay in this pilgrim’s paradise.
Jimandi 