Day 1 of walking, Estella to Los Arcos, 20.4 kms
We took a bus from Pamplona where we had spent the night to Estella where we would be picking up the Camino again. Right outside of Estella within the first five minutes of walking, I spotted this sign on the side of a bar-café: 666 kms to Santiago. These signs are fairly frequent, advertising for San Miguel beer, put up in the last jubilee year of 2004 (when the feast of Santiago, 25 July lands on a Sunday).
Within an hour of walking, we'd arrived at the Irache winery, famous for its free wine. The bodega (winery) has two fountains, one with water and one with wine. The sign tells pilgrims that if they want to arrive in Santiago in one piece, they need to fortify themselves with wine and make a toast.
Right by the winery is the Irache abbey church, a pretty Romanesque church that has a Baroque facade. This church also has an attractive cloister. It was one of the few churches open on the entire segment of the camino we walked.
In the afternoon (as the heat cranked up), we found ourselves walking through vineyards (we are in Rioja) and olive groves. The scenery is pretty and made for an easy first day of walking. (We were glad we didn't have to go to the top of that bump in the photo.) It makes a big difference not to be walking with two broken toes to say the least.
In the early days of this segment of the Camino, we could still see mountains and there was some variation in the terrain. It would be a while before we got to the alteplano/meseta. For the time being, we enjoyed seeing nearby mountains. There are lots and lots of wildflowers, which makes for restful walking, too. Nonetheless, the photo hints at some of the vast vistas we would see later on.
