awesome breakfast

We stayed in a lovely hotel with really hot water. The town is called ¨"Puente de Reina" but I think it should be "Fuente de Comida".

We have had Issues getting breakfast at the Hostels and even when we order breakfast in a cafe it is like one piece of dry bread. I see why the Spanish are so thin, they only eat once a week.

It was today. The breakfast was like breakfast in Greece! Bowls of fresh yogurt, fruit, cereal, fresh bread, cheese! Chocolate! It was heaven. I ate too much!

We are stopped for lunch at a place called "Lorca". It is a medieval Hill Town. The cafe has free Internet. This morning we saw a Roman Road. The countryside is much drier. I think we are out of the slug zone.

I just tried to upload a picture because this computer has USB but not successful.

There is a guy here trekking carrying a guitar. His backpack was tiny. Okay, getting going. bye.

Mary

the Heights of Excuse Me

Last night we had a lovely dinner with the Norwegian mother and daughter, Astrid and Marion.

I developed shin splints on my left leg and was worried about it, but Marion cured it with her magic foot cream. She got it from the Internet. It contains some homeopathic herbs. I wish I remembered what they were!!

After that we went to bed. I was not bothered by however many snoring men were in my room since I had my ear plugs.

This morning we crossed the Altos de Perdon. (means Heights of Pardon) This is a mountain near Pamplona. It contains metal statues of Santiago pilgrims. It was really windy up there. There was a water fountain there.

The story of the fountain is that a pilgrim was dying of thirst. The Devil was disguised as another pilgrim. He told the dying pilgrim that he would give him some water if he would renounce God. The dying pilgrim refused! Then Saint James appeared and created the fountain!

Once again I scampered up the mountain at top speed. I need to learn to pace myself and move a little slower so I don´t get so tired. There are so many flowers! Today there was pink heather on the mountain. I saw a hummingbird moth, a cute little insect that looks just like a hummingbird, hovering around some lavender. I may buy some colored pencils and paper and start sketching some of the wild flowers here. Today I also saw a lot of purple and pink Salvia, growing wild.

We visited a beautiful medieval chapel. It was octagonal in shape. It had an octagonal cloister. It was called Eunate. Hmm. It was in the middle of the country and very pretty and peaceful.

Okay I had better go. We are staying in a lovely hotel made from an old stone house. I washed my hair. Haha my own bathroom for a price.

hostel at Cizur Menor

OKay I am running out of time on this computer.

We arrived at hostel. There are 50 people staying here, at least. WE are in a room with about 12 people, men and women.

Regine is here, the woman we met at orisson. There is an american guy named Brook in our room, very nice.

I got annoyed taking a shower because I had to wait on line! There were 4 women trying to take a shower. After my shower I had to compete with 5 women for the sink! One lady was washing her laundry in the sink while the rest of us tried to brush our teeth and put on face cream. They had a laundry sink outside. Oh well, I am not annoyed any more. It is very pretty. There is a fish pond with turtles for me to feed. I bought a pice of bread to feed them They are very cute.

Okay that is about it for today!

Mary

the crazies of pamplona! call 911.

We spent the night in a lovely hotel. We had dinner with three Spanish ladies. They were hysterical! Dinner was mystery meat with french fries. I did not understand the dessert choices. I accidently ordered a bowl of solidified sheep´s milk. Hmm. It tasted like it was very low fat. The three women told me to try it with honey. Didn´t help. The women said ¨at least they didn´t kill anything to make it!¨

Breakfast was included with the room. Peach juice, three pieces of toast, a Danish AND chocolate pound cake.

We walked a long way through lots of flower meadows. I had Anselmo photograph most of the flowers so that I can look them up if I ever find a flower guide.

Finally we reached Pamplona. I read last night that Pamplona got that name from the Roman general Pompey, who must have conquered it. Pamplona is the capital of the Basque country. The Basque name for it is Iruna. The signs all have both names. It is a center of Basque nationalism.

The festival of San Fermin is the one where they have the Running of the Bulls. The festival started today (July 6) and lasts till July 14. The Running of the Bulls is tomorrow morning. The festival has a traditional outfit: white pants, white shirt, a red sash, and a red bandana. Everyone wears the outfit, from old people down to babies. The little kids in the outfit look so cute!!!

The center of Pamplona is surrounded by an huge ancient city wall. It looks like a Lego Castle that we used to play with when Liz was little. It has those round towers at the corners like a regular castle.

When we walked up to the stairs through the wall, we noticed EMS folks and police and an ambulance. Halfway down the wall is a ledge. The police were venturing out onto the ledge. Someone had fallen off the wall and landed on the ledge!!!! The police were trying to rescue the person! What an idiot!!!

Soon we got into town. It was packed with people like Times Square, all dressed in the traditional outfit. I saw a t-shirt I liked, with a bull snorting fire and smoke out of its nostrils. Some people were wearing hats with bull horns. Everyone was drinking wine like crazy. People were using those leather wine bags, called a ¨bota¨, to squirt wine in each other´s mouth. They were missing! People were also pouring wine in each other´s plastic glass from giant size bottles. I noticed some broken eggs. It turns out that early in the day they throw eggs at Camino de Santiago pilgrims. Fortunately we missed that particular tradition!

We did get wine poured on our feet. Anselmo had to change his socks. Serves him right for wearing sandals with socks.

Finally we left Pamplona.

The "Chanson de Roland"

Okay, this battle was in 780 AD. Charlemagne was fighting the Saracens in Spain. He promised the Basques that he would not damage Pamplona. However he destroyed the walls of the city. Roland was the general of the rear guard of Charlemagne´s army. Charlemagne retreated back over the Cize pass. The Basques ambushed Roland and his army. Roland had a supernatural sword named Durendal. He had a horn named Oliphaunt
Roland is (possibly) buried at Roncesvalles.

I slept for 12 hours. The next day I woke up very tired. Breakfast was not available at an early hour so we started walking. It was mostly downhill but there was some uphill. We saw a few small villages. I still had the runs but not quite as bad. We walked through some beautiful forests. The weather got slightly warmer but not much!

We are staying in a village called Zuberi. Since I am still a little sick we stayed in a hotel again. This hotel has a reading room, the first books I´ve seen! I would really like to see a flower guide!

Okay, more next time!

Mary

Camino de Santiago: crossing the pyrenees, looking for a bathroom

Our pilgrimage began at St Jean Pied de Port, a small town in France at the foot of the Pyrenees.

Early the next morning we started on the route to the Cize pass. It was straight uphill. We had a little light rain. Anselmo agreed that we would stop at a hostel called Auberge de Orisson.

It took us about 3-4 hours to reach the Auberge. I had a sudden attack of Montezuma´s revenge and kept looking for a bathroom. We stopped at a cute cafe halfway there which fortunately had a bathroom. However, I flew up that mountainside like a rocket.

The Auberge Orisson was at an altitude of ... about 2500 feet. The view was spectacular. There was an outdoor terrace but it was much too cold to eat outside. We stayed in a room with three bunk beds. They gave us a token to take a shower. They had a dryer there which was fortunate since our clothes were wet and it was cold and humid. The shower was not hot. I didn´t wash my hair since I had no way of getting it dry. The toilet and sink were separate from the shower room.

Dinner was served at one big table. We sat with a guy named ¨"Crrl". He was Belgian, tall, scraggly beard, about 35. He had walked from Belgium. He claimed that his name ¨"had no vowels, only consonants". We also sat with a tall, thin, pretty Belgian woman named Regine. They were not together. He was alone and she was with two other women. We had a lively discussion about the differences of hiking in the US and in Europe. Europe doesn´t have animals, is the main difference, and Americans sleep in tents instead of inns. We met a mother and daughter from Norway who came in late.

There was nothing to do after dinner. Everyone tried to stand on the terrace and look at the view but it was too cold. I never got to sleep that night because of jet lag. Anselmo brought some TV shows on his Ipod. I watched 5 episodes of¨"Rescue Me".

The next morning we all had breakfast together. Breakfast was French bread, and BOWLS of coffee. Seriously. Bowls.

We started hiking up to the Cize pass. It was really beautiful but really cold and windy. I wore my nerdy hat and sunglasses. The wind blew so hard that I got some "lift" from my hat. The nerdy hat is a hat recommended by Helen. It is broad brimmed all around, with netting for ventilation, and white.

Oh, speaking of clothing, Michelle, you were right about the lined shorts. You don´t have to wear anything under them and you wash them out every night and they dry really fast. They are great.

Anyway, I rocketed up the mountain to the pass. We started last in our group but we got to the top first. The pass was at an altitude of 4500 feet.

Wildlife: we saw these huge soaring birds called Griffon Vultures. Wing span of up to 8 feet. They were soaring all around. It was a very windy day.

The only other animals we saw were HUGE SLUGS who kept crossing the road for some reason making me scream.

Plant life: there were millions of flowers.

At the high altitudes the pastures were carpeted withe beautiful pink heather.


At the middle altitudes there were deep pink spikes of Foxglove.



There were lots of smaller white, yellow, pink, blue and purple flowers. There were some pink flowers like very tiny hyacinths. There were huge Queen Anne´s Lace and lots of big ferns.

Soon we reached Roncesvalles, where I immediately ran for the bathroom. We did not stay at the hostel there. We got a gorgeous apartment. It had beautiful windows which opened to the flower meadows. The shower was really hot. Unlike the hostel, I could leave my bathroom things out and there was a hair dryer!

After we got cleaned up we went on a tour of Roncesvalles. It is the place where the legendary "Chanson de Roland" took place. It is the first great work of literature in the French language.

Oops, I am out of time on my computer! More tomorrow. I will explain the Chanson de Roland.

Mary

Montenegro

One day I rented a car and drove down to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. It was kind of a long day, with too much driving, but the bay is beautiful.

The walled city (maybe more of a town) of Kotor is much more manageable than Dubrovnik. What I mean is that there are no cruise ships in the harbor. Perhaps it's too small. There were plenty of restaurants and tourists, and the town was impressive.

The whole coast is full of little coves, and seems to be popular with beachgoers. There were some large hotels, but mainly people seemed to be staying in smaller places. An interesting island is Sveti Stefan. Well, it's almost an island since there's a small causeway that leads to it. The whole place is a resort for the rich crowd, so all I could do is have a look at it from a cliff on the mainland.

Interestingly, they use the Euro in Montenegro. I'll have to learn more about the recent history of the are when I get home. I know that Montenegro declared independence from Serbia not too long ago, but how did they end up with the Euro?

I wish I'd spent a night or two in Kotor.

I'm now back in Sarajevo and headed to London to meet Mary later today. I'd have to say that Sarajevo is my favorite of all these places. The old town is full of cafes, people are very friendly, there are few other tourists, and it's cheap.