Last night's albergue really was the bees knees - relaxing and half empty: not only was no-one sleeping above me but no-one in the next bunk over either. I slept so well and was amazed that the first clock chimes I heard all night were at 7 this morning. Also a stonking meatball based supper and a mass that I could almost fully understand... turned out to be because the priest was Polish! And there was me thinking that going to mass was really helping my Spanish..
Anyway, onwards. It felt like quite a tough day today though <25k I think. Largely nice walking and with half the population out strolling or rotivating their vegetable plots (it's Sunday). Also had a nice coke break in the surprisingly large and pretty old town of Estella and then a free spot of wine at the monastery wine fountain at Irache. While free wine is always welcome, in the heat of the day I was actually more interested in the water fountain, to the amusement of a little old lady who kissed me on both cheeks and wished me luck. People are vey sweet like that, you get a 'buen camino' about half the time from passers-by and sometimes more - we had mints pressed on us by one chap just before Pamplona.
We weren't entirely sure if this albergue was open (it is, and it's brand new and immaculate, with a Scandinavian feel) and for a while debated whether we would be able to manage another 12k to the next town. At lunchtime I thought yes. I was wrong.
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