Puente la Reina, Museum of Navarra & Planetarium

Hello blog fans!  We've had a good week in Pamplona.  The sun's been out most days - averaging around 20+ but in the shade there's a definite autumnal chill in the air.  But enough of the weather forecast - here's a quick update of of what we've been up to over the last few days. 


Saturday 5 October - Puente la Reina
We decided to jump on a bus to the lovely village of nearby Puente la Reina - a town on the Camino de Santiago de Compestela and known for its beautiful Romanesque bridge.

Bridge which gives 'Puente la Reina' its name

For those of you interested in the Camino the towns of Pamplona, Puente la Reina (plus other villages we've visited so far) are all on the path of St James the Apostle. We didn't set out on this trip to walk any of the Camino but we have passed much of it en route to various shops, sights and pintxo bars!

The Camino itself is quite obvious - marked by scallop shells either inset in the pavements or on walls, fences, etc.  We've passed many a pilgrim bearing their mini rucksacks, staff and scallop shell (items carried by St James on his pilgrimage).   Now, without wanting to take anything away from the pilgrims, we know that many use private buses to transport their heavy gear and use public transport between stops.  Pilgrims collect stamps at each point (from a lodge, info office, etc) after which you get your Certificate of Completion.  In fact, you can claim a certificate for walking only the last 100km! Maybe we're purists at heart (or cynics!) - we're certainly not without faith - but when someone says to you they've walked the Camino, take it with a pinch of salt.

There are various Caminos which all end in Santiago de Compostela (including the Portguese camino and English camino) but we're located on part of the French camino which starts in France (naturally!) and enters Spain at nearby Ronscesvalles in the Spanish Pyrenees, passing through Pamplona westwards a mere 768km to Santiago de Compestela in Galicia.  You never know though - we may yet fall prey to the ways of the pilgrim!

Mick bearing rucksack (for his sandwiches!) on the Puente la Reina

Puente is a tiny medieval village with lots of colourful, narrow streets, a plaza, a church, various cafes and bars with traditional local shops all doing good business.  We found a lovely bar on the main street which was awash with pintxos so we had a nice lunch there before heading back to Pamplona in the late afternoon.

Sunday 6 October - Museum of Navarra, Pamplona
Today we visited the highly recommended Museum of Navarra which walks you through Basque art & architectural history and is home to stunning Roman mosaics - the best we've seen - and Gothic artwork as well as more recent artwork by Navarre and Spanish artists, including Goya.  It was a really impressive place and a good afternoon out.  And, for once, there was no entrance fee to pay!

Monday 7 October - Planetarium, Pamplona
Some may say that our heads in the clouds but, as Mick knows about navigational astronomy and because I've never visited a planetarium we figured it was worth a look.  We walked through nearby Yamaguchi Park (the patron saint of Pamplona actually travelled to Yamaguchi in Japan - some journey in the 15/16th century) and is why Pamplona is now twinned with Yamaguchi.  The Planetarium was really informative with a temporary exhibition about chemistry in everyday life.  Two presentations were shown: one about how light pollution is affecting astronomy (and astronomers' ability to find answers to questions about Earth's evolution); plus one about Earth's evolution generally - in Spanish!   I was busy translating for Mick but he got the gist of it anyway from the imagery.

So that's our week so far.  We're off to explore the Pyrenees later this week and we've got a couple days in Zaragoza next week before we move onto Bilbao.  So until then, hope you're all well and enjoying the blog.  Over!