Day six - Estella to Los Arcos

Clouds over the cliffs to the north as we leave Estella

Here we are in Los Arcos. Thanks to the 6.30am breakfast we were able to get away before 7am and made excellent time for the first two hours, stopping only for some bread, ham, cheese and bananas to sustain us as the morning went on 

Home of the famous wine fountain

Our next stop was the compulsory one at the Irach wine fountain, where I secured a little supply for later in the day.

Shortly after, we were faced with the first major decision of the day, whether to take the regular path, or choose the alternative scenic route. 

The profile of the scenic route looked a little more gentle, but we were unsure of what the surfaces would be like.

Cathie's knees don't allow for easy descending on irregular surfaces and my dodgy hamstring doesn't like going uphill, so we took the conservative choice. 

We were really glad we did. On the whole the path was wide and smooth. According to the book, 82 percent of today's stage is on natural surfaces - dry, dusty roads that are forgiving on the feet.

Best of all, the landscapes were wonderful, with long vistas over wheat fields and valleys to cliffs, hills far away, or the prominent, breast-shaped mound of Monjardin, mostly covered in forest, but with its square nipple looking remarkably bare.

A distant view of Monjardin

We were in search of a coffee, but the village of Azqueta yielded no joy in that department. Soon after, we came upon a square building with on open double-arched entrance running its full width. The interior was completely open, with steps leading down to a pond, or large bath.

Fuente de Los Moros

The was the 13th century fountain of the Moors - Fuente de Los Moros. 

As we got closer to Monjardin, we could see that there was a building perched away up there - the ruins of St Stephen's Castle (Castillo de San Esteban).

The castle is also notable for containing the tomb of Sanchez I. It must get awfully lonely up there at night for Sanchez - I don't think I'd like to spend the night alone up there with him.

Monjardin, including the tomb of Sanchez I

At Villamayor de Monjardin Centro, we found a lovely little shop with a coffee machine, a cheerful, helpful woman and a very clean toilet. 

All of those factors, combined with the fact that there were chairs and tables outside in the shade, made it a happy stop for us.

The long road just stretches out ahead

The rest of the day's relatively short stage passed peacefully and we wandered in to Los Arcos before 1pm, finding our hotel (Pension Los Arcos) with the minimum of fuss.

It's a pretty nice hotel, the water is hot and the water pressure is strong, so we had lovely showers. It was a good chance to dry our washing, as there's a little balcony outside with a small clothesline, but sadly the occupants of the night before had broken the door, so we couldn't get out there. At 2.30pm we're still waiting for the promised Mr Fixit to arrive.

The other, more serious drawback, is that the wifi, powerful though it may be down at the office desk, rapidly loses strength as you climb the stairs and disappears entirely when I sit at the spacious and convenient desk in our room.

The lovely Tania downstairs doesn't seem to appreciate the problem, but her lack of English and our lack of Spanish conspire to make the solving of the problem insurmountable.

In the meantime, I'm typing away in a text file and hope the time will come when I can get online, add photos and post this story. Maybe I'll have to go and work out on the stairs, where it works quite well. Unfortunately, it's a chilly day and those cold marble steps would undoubtedly affect some part of my body in ways I don't want to imagine.

As is the problem for me on long easy walks, my head keeps filling with extraneous garbage. It's lovely to be outside, watching the changing scenery, observing the many other walkers and thinking about this and that, but sometimes I wish my mind would stop chattering at me.

I'd been troubled by another of those old songs that refuses to get out of my head, especially since one line will just keep repeating. I know if I concentrate, I can remember other lines and verses, but that's just what I don't want to do - it'll keep the blessed song going around forever.

Instead, I started thinking about names - how Stephen becomes the much more dashing Esteban, for example. 

Tiago becomes James, so we're walking The Way of St James to St James (although the Spanish like to call it Santiago).

Imagine if I'd been born in Spain - I'd be Pedro. Oops, big mistake, suddenly a new ear worm blossomed as Pedro the Fisherman, a song I've always loved, even if I don't know most of the words.

What I loved about it as a child was that Pedro did what real men do, claimed his lover and took her away to somewhere exotic, which is what I've done (makes me sound a lot more romantic than I really am).

For your edification, here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiE6iG3IYNk

Time has passed. After I'd written most of today's story, we walked off to the square by the church in the centre of Los Arcos. I had happy memories of drinking beer in the square in 2019, so we got a drink and soaked up the sun (it had been a cool day). We noticed that we could get food, so we ordered a pizza and a salad and shared them. It was only 4pm, but we like to eat early and we wanted some healthy food.

So here we are. We're sitting in the foyer area where we can get wifi, chatting with our new friend Sterling, drinking wine from Irach and life is good.

Here's the Relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vQvynrQ18KO

Here's today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zLePxAKvf6kRGgdJ8