Circle Tour 2014--Day 6

Day 6, June 16—To Pamplona

On Monday of that second week, we will spend one night in Pamplona, the capital of Nafarroa autonomous region and the historical "high water mark" for the "Basque Country". The majority of them would say that it should be called the "Nafarroan Country," says Jeff Shadowen who lives in the Basque Country and will be leading us and helping us understand and learn about this ancient culture.

As mentioned earlier, Pamplona is one of the oldest cities in the Basque region, built by the Romans.

You can relive our last year's experience of Pamplona in the last half of this blog post: on to Pamplona.

In the first part, however, we were at a lovely campground, 7 Robles/Zazpi Haritzak (Seven Oaks Camp), where we had spent the night. This year it is not on our route. Interestingly these past months I have been reading the autobiography of the man who played a major role in starting the camp. 

P.S: We have arrived at our Tuesday destination, in France, and now at last have the opportunity to update past blog posts.
 
Yesterday, Monday, we traveled from San Sebastian to Pamplona.

 We wound up through dense forests and sheep grazing hills and stopped at a famous sanctuary.

San Miguel de Aralar

 As soon as we arrived at our hotel we phoned Fatima, a friend of one of last year's teammate Suzi. She and her friend, Juan, came to meet us immediately at our hotel and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening showing us the sights. We saw and experienced far more of the famous city than last year thanks to our great tour guide, Juan. I hope I can make sense of the many photos later.

Another wonderful day! But, oh, my feet hurt!!!
Another day when we were not around to cheer the cyclists on their return. Instead they met us downtown after putting the bikes away and showering.