The pervasive smell in the hotel last night, Vic tells me, was that of newly fermenting wine. I’m used to it so I didn’t notice. If it didn’t come from the local winery, one of the nearby apartments is brewing their own. The local winery is a large one, but on the edge of town. It is one of the high points of the Camino, as it has a free wine fountain available to pilgrims. Unfortunately there was no wine available (at 9 AM) as it appears the tap was broken. There were many disappointed pilgrims milling around. You can see it on the internet webcam http://www.irache.com/en/enoturismo/fuente-del-vino.html if the webcam is working any better than the tap. There was another major winery and more grapes seen later in the day – that great Navarre wine has to come from somewhere.
Breakfast usually opens at 7 AM, we and get underway by 8:30. Today there was no real practical place to stop for coffee until well into lunch time. When you miss the first open coffee stop in a village, assuming the second one will be less crowded, and there is no second one, there is not enough energy to go back to the first one and you carry on. And you do it twice. This afternoon’s walk was along 13 km of gravel road winding through mildly undulating stubble fields. A taste of what is to come in the Meseta.
One of the groups that we have been leapfrogging on the Camino is a couple of mildly overweight old guys (said without prejudice) from Brittany. One has a full backpack, but the other has his backpack in a 2 wheel cart made of plastic plumbing attached to loops on his belt. It seems that would be okay on the level, but we do run across some terrible rocky stretches that would seem to be difficult. Notwithstanding, they keep up with us. The Canadian guy who walked across Canada had a similar one wheeled device, but with a much better hip and shoulder harness.
Vic has been powering through the blisters like a trooper. However as we turned into the hotel she felt a sudden surge of pain. We subsequently found that she had pulled the toenail of her little toe loose making it far too painful to walk. We hobbled over to the medical clinic, some 50 meters away, which was closed, but the hotel opened for us. The female doctor and male nurse had a look at it, bandaged it, said ‘no walking!!’, (duh!) drained a couple blisters, and sent us on our way – with a bill for 121 euros. Maybe this is what the travel medical insurance is for – we’ll see. Anyway, it is a good thing this happened at the hotel, as if it had been a couple hours earlier, I would have had to drag her by the other foot miles down a gravel road and that would have been exhausting.
We have sort of made arrangements for her to go by taxi to the next hotel, and I am thinking of walking tomorrow with a couple of American women we met. We’ll see how tomorrow goes for the future walking.
We hobbled Vic over to the church to have a look. Los Arcos is a relatively small town, but they have a magnificent church. The area behind that altar, and the side walls are covered in ornate gilded wood baroque carvings the equal of which we have never seen before. It is the Church of Santa Maria, and the centrepiece is a Virgin and Child carving from 1175 located high in the altarpiece. It was originally a black Virgin from Madrid, but was ‘restored’ in 1947. As we watched, the setting sun streaming through a round window in the rear moved across the panels settling perfectly on the carving of the Virgin and Child. It is a combination of astronomy and our good fortune that resulted in such a scene. There were a couple dozen photographers ready, so it is a known thing, and only occurs once a year. The rest of the church was decorated with many other styles of carving, and wall painting. Worth much art study.
Ouch! Poor Vic! Hope it heals fast. Give it rest for a few days if you can.