The flight to Madrid began boarding at 5:17pm instead of 5:30. Fortunately our flight from Pittsburgh DID arrive on time. The plane was a 767 with 7 seats across so it takes longer to board. The actual takeoff time was 6:15 pm. They offered a free hot meal! Can you imagine! US Airways?? Beef or pasta. The flight arrives in Madrid at 7:35 am but I am not sleepy - afterall, it is only 8:20 pm in Pittsburgh!
My backpack weighs a ton. I realized that when I was carrying it from Terminal B to Terminal A in the Philadelphia airport. It weighs even more than Fernando's - I hope it is the boots, but I will let HIM carry the cosmetics that we checked in a small box, along with pocket knives, as luggage. I know the pack will feel lighter on my back and we did carry 27 pounds for the backpacking course (tent, pads, stove & cooking equipment plus food)
9:40 am.
We landed in Madrid, got our cosmetic box from baggage, geared up and took the Metro (3 lines) to the Atocha Renfe stop and decided to see if we couldn't catch the 9:50 train to Pamplona instead of the 2:05 pm train. It was hard to find the right ticket counter (even speaking the language) but we did get tickets for the earlier train, which is absolutely empty except for a couple of other passengers. At least it is in our "coche". We are going first class, partly because Fernando remembers the night train to Toulon from Barcelona, where pickpockets were fleecing all the sleeping passengers. Plus first class gives you a meal, although it will be interesting to see what "desayuno" means.
Last night I wasn't able to sleep a wink. Somehow the seats in the plane put pressure on my left hip so I have numbing pain running down the back of that leg. The seats on the train are hard but there is lots of room for the legs and there are foot rests -- just like first class on a plane! Plus I have a window seat so I hope to see lots of country side -- not like a plane where you see nothing but clouds below your -- unless, of course, you are flying over desert.
Desayuno turns out to be tortilla francesa con beicon acompanada de croqueta de patata y salsa crema de guisantes. y fruta cortada.
The countryside outside of Madrid is quite green this time of year -- Fernando is amazed.
We really didn't have to make train reservations online ahead of time since there were only about 5 people in the car. The breakfast was a bit better than airplane food and the service, of course, was excellent.
We arrived in Pamplona around 2 pm and took the municipal bus into the casco viejo. The driver left us off close to the hostal but the streets are not parallel and perpendicular so it is hard to find out where you are. The street signs are on the sides of the buildings and sometimes hard to find.
On our walk, we ran into a spectacular statue of the running of the bulls. Since it was Sunday, several families were taking pictures in front of it and children were climbing over it.
The Hostal Arriazu was easy to find once we located Calle Comedias -- it was on the second floor and there were already 3 peregrinos from Switzerland checking in. Although a spanish pilgrim did ride with us on the bus from the train station, I have a feeling that most peregrinos are foreigners.
The hostal isn't cheap (65 euros) with breakfast (which was horrid, except for the coffee, consisting of cellophane wrapped cakes), and the first room they gave us was in front with a double bed. We asked if we could have a side room and the lady at the desk, a Peruana, gave us a slightly larger room with two twin beds. it's actually on a side street but none of the streets have traffic, just people talking.
We went out for a walk and realized that people were having their lunch (it was 3 pm) so we decided we better adapt to their schedule, although we were still stuffed after the train desayuno.
We stopped at a place with a menu del dia for 15.95 euros. For the principio we had "menestra de verduras" which is a soup of big chunky vegetables. It is a specialty of this region and had baby artichokes, peas, beans, asparagus, and mushrooms. It needed a bit more salt and could probably be a good dish if it hadn't been cooked to death and had some herbs like parsley.
Then Fernando ordered conejo (rabbit) and I ordered lamb shank for the entrada, although I was already stuffed after the menestra. The waiter also brought us bread, a bottle of red wine, and a bottle of lemon-flavored seltzer water. Halfway through the meal we found that the wine and seltzer tasted really good mixed together. That became our staple drink on the Camino.
Fernando's rabbit was better than my cordera, although I got french fries with mine (yum) and he didn't. For dessert I had cuajada with miel (rennet custard with honey) and Fernando had his flan. The cuajada was just a rennet custard in an earthenware cazuelita. We ended with coffee: small, black espressos with two sugar cubes. I thought the lunch was good but Papi thought it was expensive.
Then we went home, took a shower and a nap, and washed clothes. Fernando washed all his but I only did panties and socks: I'm not THAT dirty... Then we went out again looking for an internet cafe but were unsuccessful. We did walk over to the Plaza de Toros and then up the estafeta where they run the bulls in the festival of San Fermin. There were interesting souvenir shops with the ZZZ botas (their shop is across from our hostal but was closed). They also had dishes of olive wood, including mortars and pestles. Alas, I can't buy them on this trip. I'm tempted to forget the camino and just do cities!
