Pamplona

22 Aug 2025

I arrived in Madrid early this morning and breezed through customs, transferred to another terminal, and got on a regional plane from Madrid to Pamplona. I shared a taxi into town from the airport with a nice lady from Seattle who is also starting the Camino. Made known to the rest of the world by Hemingway for its Festival of San Fermín and the running of the bulls in early July every year, Pamplona is a charming small city founded by the Romans in the first century BC. Peter and I came here with my brother and some of our young military friends for that festival in 2002. Today, after a delicious meal of roast pork and artichokes with jamon, it was fun to retrace some of our steps from those days and walk the route that the bulls are corralled on the way to the bullring in the center of the old part of the city.

Now nestled into my hotel for the night, tomorrow morning I take a bus across the mountainous border into France to the city of St Jean Pied de Port. It is a popular starting point for pilgrims walking the Camino. I’m exhausted from travel but practically buzzing with anticipation.