puente la Reina

Food great bizarre day when bulls appeared on the streets and the next morning the locals were stumbling back from the allnighter at the local discoteca 

Mink DeVille, let's hear Spanish Stroll and talk about the camino

I borrowed Dancing Brave's blacksmith and I'm suitably shorn for my Spanish Stroll. https://youtu.be/N5LveBIjg3o .

i can't tell you how wise it is when you are embarking on a 500 mile walk to make sure that you don't have any rough edges.

I lost a toe nail last year and I often lose a nail and buy a set of new clippers but as light as a pair of nail clippers are I'd rather wait 2 weeks until I'm fit enough to carry them.

this year we've already done Leon ponferrade by bus and then walking to Santiago in March with Simon as we toasted Jackie's 70th.

I've also done Najera to Hornillos with the walking jakies in May for Paul's 50th.

So now it's time to plug a few gaps. I'm returning to Pamplona where Simon and I will relieve memories of James McFadden against France when we stayed at Maisonnave in 2007. Check out 500m.wordpress for Simon sleeping through the goal!

I love Pamplona and the tin soldiers on the hill, aka pilgrims at mont el perdon. I've got many pictures with John and Jimmy up there as well as previous years with Harry, Stu or Paul.

I love the background with the sky as a blue and white wall.

We go to Logrono and then onto Burgos with the last stop at Cardenuela rio Pico.

The people here are amazing. I first met Miryam and her laddie when I was kicking a football across the Camino in 2013. He was probably 7 or 8 and wanting to kick the ball. Occupational hazard I thought, despite being exhausted I loosened off the limbs as he stood protecting a gap between two chairs and kicked it into the river! Well, the last time I saw him he's probably 16/17 and taller than me. Aye, this Camino can age you.

We're going to be staying there on October 2nd and that's about the only date in the diary, the rest will be freewheelin, like the wind on the meseta we'll find out where we're staying when we cant walk, think or talk. October 2nd is a Sunday and you dont want to hit Burgos on Sunday. Its busy. Also Simon knows its Man City v Man Utd so he'll want a bet or at least he'll want to hide in Atapuerca. Go on, google Atapuerca Mandible, you know you want to. You'll learn all about our ancestors and what came before homo sapiens asserted themselves as the dominant version of us, although some of us still carry lots of traits from our Pleistocene hominin past. So we will walk into Burgos on the Monday while Stu comes down from Santander on the 8am bus. Edinburgh to Santander is a great service on Sunday and Wednesday. We're flying to Bordeaux as all our planning was based on the eurostar and trying to be mindful. £400 from Edinburgh v £20 was always going to be a tough sale when you're not rich enough. Once we're in Spain we do tend to walk everywhere so not so much of a footprint, more a boot mark. https://youtu.be/N5LveBIjg3o - give it a whirl