Puente La Reina we thought we'd never find you!

I have a confession to make.  My training to prepare myself for this adventure consisted of walking to  and from work four days a week, 3 miles in each direction with a long rest in between.  On the weekends we would do a longer training walk, 12 miles was the longest we did.  That evidentially was not enough to prepare ourselves and we're feeling reprocussions of it now.  Today's walk was 14.57 miles from Pamlona to Puente La Reina with one big bump along the way. Here's what the elevation looked like.

We left Pamplona this morning about 8:30, I know that seems late but it doesn't get light here until about 8am.  Our hotel had a really nice breakfast buffet and we ate like queens.  The morning was overcast with fog for the first couple of hours. As we ascended Alto del Perdon, or "Hill of Forgiveness" the fog began to lift. Here's a picture on the way up.

A little way further up the hill we came to the village of Zariquiegui where we found this old Church of Saint Andrew.

After walking about another hour uphill we got to the top, a cound see Pamplona way off in the distance. 

At the top was a wrought iron representation of medieval pilgrims and two modern day pilgrims.

The path to descend the other side was very rocky and I fell for the first time on this trip. I stepped on a rock and it rolled from under my foot like I had a pair of roller skates on. Thank God I didn't hurt anything but my pride!  We met a man today the Camino with his thirteen year old son today. He wants to teach his son that if he can do this...he can do anything! We believe him and admire his son for doing it.  We had bought several California & San Diego ball caps to give away on this trip so we gave him one and told him he was doing a great job! You should have seen the smile on his face. 

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