Day: September 24, 2021

The drive from the house in Lónguida to SOS del Rey Catolicos was less than an hour. We checked into the Parador and went out to explore the town. SOS del Rey Catolicos was built in the tenth century as a fortress to defend against the Moors.

Duke asked the people at the front desk to recommend a hike and they suggested a hike in Foz de Lumbier. The trail follows the rail bed of the first electric train in Spain. We drove to the trailhead and walked through a canyon, along a River.

The canyon is a nature reserve especially for some endangered vulture species. We could seeing them flying and sitting on the cliffs.

Our card playing spot was one of the best of the trip.

We had an excellent dinner at the parador.

We are still staying at the house about thirty minutes east of Pamplona with no internet so this will be posted probably Friday when we next have internet.

A first for this trip, we had no rain today! We drove into Pamplona, parked and then explored the town. We stopped at the tourist office and got a map with English descriptions of local sites. As you probably know Pamplona is best known for the Running of the Bulls which happens in July during the festival of San Fermín. Ernest Hemingway wrote about it and helped make it famous.

We walked the path where the bulls run, from the edge of the old town to the bull fighting ring.

Nearby is a bronze monument to the bull run.

We had coffee on the Plaza del Castillo at Cafe Iruña where Hemingway used to hang out.

And we checked out the cathedral. Part of looking at the cathedral included touring the bell ringers house in one of the bell towers.

Before we left town we went grocery shopping for food to cook for dinner.