We’re now ensconced in a lovely, friendly albergue a few km outside of Pamplona. We stayed here in 2016 when they had tortoises wandering around the well stocked garden.

But, no tortoises 😩.

Apparently they all died some time ago. Trump gets the blame yet again. If he’d signed the Paris accord there’d be less global warming and there would still be tortoises in Cizur Menor. At least that’s how I see it.

Here are a final couple of pictures of San Sebastián.

It’s a city I’d happily return to and hopefully, possibly next year, Dorothy and I will return to pick up the Norte where we left it, at café Perla on the main beach.

If nothing else, the food here would bring us back. We had perhaps the most enjoyable lunch I’ve had in Spain.

The main course was trout with feta cheese and sundry items – stunning. The desert, well, as you can see, I only just managed to prise the remnants of one out of Dorothy’s grasping hands before she scoffed it. Note the empty plate alongside. The house white was delightful, most of which was consumed by Tom before reaching any glasses. What a great meal!

Tom had managed to lose his brand new Swiss, space grade aluminium water bottle but the maid at the hotel where he’d made the abortive effort to stay had found it so he’s a happy bunny.

The bus to Pamplona was as always in Spain in our experience, full, but the hour long journey passed quickly.

The landscape changed dramatically as we headed south, from deep forested valleys clothed in green

to great granite outcrops

and then onto the yellow of the corn on the plains outside of Pamplona.

The walk up to the albergue was short and only very reasonably uphill so Tom’s knee coped admirably.

Our washing is in the washer, our beds have been earmarked, we’re all clean after showering and it’s Tom’s turn to pay for dinner. Bliss 😊.

Tomorrow’s route takes us up and over Alto del Perdón which has a steep ascent and a somewhat precipitous descent. Last time we climbed it, on the way up we chatted with a delightful middle aged lady with two artificial hips and at least one artificial knee. She was walking slowly in the company of her niece but was clearly determined to get to the top. I’m sure that she made it but I’ve absolutely no idea how she managed the descent. I’d forgotten all about her until we were more than half way down and was all for going back up to help her with her bags etc but as mum pointed out, others would undoubtedly have helped her. Fingers crossed she didn’t require any more of her joints replaced.

The washing is finishing and we’ll head out for some food shortly.

Hope things are well at home. The pictures of Taliesin that mum got from Lucy suggest that he’s enjoying himself 😊.

Buen Camino