Wednesday December 17 th 2014 Zubiri 32 km. by accident

Today it has rained all day. In Pamplona, we were going wrong a little bit, but Jan managed to correct quickly. We walked across the drawbridge of the city and a score of photographers shot pictures. I asked 10 E, but got nothing except a laugh. In the suburbs, a helpful Spaniard guided us a few km. into the “good” direction. After following his instructions and asking the way a few times we were back at the same site as 1.5 h. before. The f…asshole. 5 Km. in vain. So we walked a total of 32 km. today.

Here at the drawbridge many took a picture of el caballo

Fortifications of Pamplona

Bij een van de stadspoorten van Pamplona

City wall of Pamplona

park in Pamplona

Show off in the suburbs of Pamplona

We arrived in Zubiri towards the evening. At the beginning of the village a young twen was playing with his toy quod with remote handling. A deafening noise. I wonder if Leon dares to pass. The twen turned out to be the boss of our inn. Leon was taken to a field half an hour walking away from the village, where he could stay in a meadow together with other horses. In the meadow was a shelter with 15 dog cages. In each kennel at least three dogs, mostly hunting type, but also Russian Laika’s, a kind of husky, some indefinable mixtura’s etc. For the boar hunt, he said. This really is a situation like ages ago. Just like bull fighting by the way. Whoever goes hunting with 30 dogs ? Do you want Leon outside with the other horses or shall we put him in a dogs kennel? Tomorrow will be a tough day with a lot of climbing. I do not want him being hassled through the night by those much larger horses, so better in a dog kennel. It is a makeshift solution, but at least he’s calm, he is under a roof, has concentrate and hay. 3 E. Tosca has a decent place on a mat in the garage of the inn. Jan in a bed and me too.

the hotelowner/hunter, keeping 25 hunting dogs. In one of the dogkennels sleeps Leon

The father of the toy quod boy brought us to a restaurant: Gautxori. Yes, this is the Basque Country, everything has an x. Wifi does not work. Always the same song. First you get the always very long wifi code in capital letters on a piece of paper, but the password must be typed in small letters. Another time, the password that is presented to us in small letters proves out, after trying a while or after some failures, to be written in capital letters. Furthermore, a q is meant to be a 9 and vice versa, a zero for the letter O etc. Often I let the bar lady type the code. Thus we have an instant conversation topic.

For example a in bar-coffee shop in a suburb of Pamplona. The bar girl asked whether the horse was ours. She wanted a picture. We of course thought that she meant taking a picture of us. No, that’s a no no. If we had horse teeth we would have scored higher. She wanted a photo of herself next to the horse. I said that we needed a carrier for our luggage and that she passed through the balloting. No doubt she wanted to, but for sure her boyfriend wouldn’t let her (we think). She was a little afraid of Leon, so I had to hold her. (picture). Helping is my job! Professionally deformed. While Jan asked all kinds of male and female students which direction to go, we learned that dog Tosca was trained by her previous owner to detect nice ladies. Repeatedly she, Tosca, walked, while watching a passenger, with her nose against a lamppost or wall. ‘The dog is like its boss’ does not apply in these situations.

Barlady who considered to become our luggage carrier

Suddenly, a river, a firemen’s car. We want bombero’s , was written at the window of the bombero’s vehicle. Under the bridge in the water divers were looking for us, we thought. The water was very dirty and very fast flowing. They’ll never find us, we thought. Moreover, because we are on the bridge. However, they must show that they do something, otherwise of course they might get fired by their boss. Even though it’s absurd. Thus it also works in politics.

Tomorrow to Roncesvalles, the day after tomorrow to St. Jean Pierre de Port at the French border. The mountain pass has no snow . Unfortunately for the photos.

pilgrims sign: a shell