Day 6 – Penta la Reina to Estella- Cathy’s View

We headed off bright and early leaving Punta le Reina by way of the Queens Bridge. The bridge was commissioned by a local Queen in order to make the pilgrims journey easier. In fact a great many bridges were constructed to ease the journey of the ancient pilgrims throughout Spain. Pilgrims brought a certain amount of trade and economic gains in ancient times, just as they do today. Pilgrims are welcomed today by young and old. As you hike along and pass any locals they always wish you a “buen camino” and they truly mean it. The pilgrimage is seen as a very important part of the Spanish history and their lifeblood  today and believe it is important to support it.

At one of our cafe stops we ran into Joyce again and agreed to meet up for dinner in Estella before she flew home.We reached Estella and booked into a very nice albergue. We even splurged and booked a twin room with sheets and blankets for 16 euro per person. It was lovely not to have a bunk and 6 or more snoring men in your room.  I think I forgot to mention earlier that the first few nights we had our bunks assigned and I always seemed to get the lower bunk. Liz finally cottoned on and I knew the next time it was my turn. Well when my turn came we both ended up with upper bunks. I was so tired that day and my feet hurt. The bunk had awful metal bars for a ladder and I tried to climb up. I told Liz I just couldn’t and if I did make it up I would probably kill myself in the middle of the night if I had to get down. I ran back to reception and pleaded with the woman for a lower bunk for me and my sister as we just couldn’t manage the climb.She took pity on me and whispered another room number to me. We ran up there quick as we could hobble and snagged two lower bunks. Victory is sweet!