Belorado

More beautiful open farmland rolling out into the distance.

This is a large cereal growing area and consequently they have a lot of bales such as this huge stack. 

And that little speck is me!

And despite all the cereals, there was a single self seeded sunflower plant at the road side.

I reached Belorado and had lunch in one of the cafes. There is a set dinner menu for pilgrims, a starter, a main course, bread, dessert and a glass of wine all for just ten euro. And it is not just dished out of a large saucepan, it is carefully presented such as this main course of vegetable lasagne.well presented

The church in the main plaza, San Pedro, but nearly half the churches along the route are dedicated to Santa Maria. They skimped on the cost of this one as there are only a few cut stone blocks for the corners, many of the walls are rounded stones pulled out of the local river.

And it couldn't be called Santa Maris because this Santa Maria church set against a sandstone cliff where hermits lived in caves until the church was built.

And the church is festooned with untidy stork's nests. They return to the same nest each year and add a few more twigs so that you can tell the age by the size and they keep building it until it falls over or is blown over and they start again on the same site.

A detail of some windows built into the cliffs behind the church.

 Logroño to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

I arrived in Logroño at lunch time and plenty of time to look around, such as the cathedral in the main plaza.

                                                  

A closer detail of the tower.

The next day on the route out of the city is this strange sight. These are prayer flays strung along a wire mesh fence.

But the real oddity are the large number of crosses weaved into the mesh made from twigs and the stems of plants and anything else found next to the path.

Grapes are still harvested by hand but there are machines available that pluck the bunches off the vines. It is quick and easy but traditionalists say that the hand cut grapes produce a better quality wine but frankly I doubt that there is any difference.

I trie taking a photo of the church in Navarrese but the other buildings were too close to get a good view.

 Some of the many bunches of grapes that are grown throughout the La Rioja region.

 No idea what this was but it was well preserved!

 The cathedral in Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

 A better view but the sun was in the wrong place so it is not a good photo but it was the same issue about trying to find a vista that wasn't interrupted by other buildings.

Logroño

This is not a site that you see very often and it really is a wine fountain!

 This a generous gift to pilgrims from the Irache Winery.

 This is the wine fountain and you can just help yourself. Some people were obviously filling up their bottle being greedy.  Perhaps they had not tasted the wine and whilst it was drinkable I would take advantage of their generosity. But several Japanese, Chinese and Korean pilgrims filled a bottle each but then again perhaps their taste buds or sense of what is a reasonable amount to take is not the same as ours.

 There was a choice of two paths, a low flat path or one that snaked into the hills which was my option.

 There was some dramatic scenery with wheat fields, police groves and seep pine forested slopes.

 And wide open rolling countryside.

 Then at Los Arcos where I stayed the night there was the church...it's bell tower...

 ...and inside the organ pipes...

 ...a view down the nave to the altar and the reredos, the ornamental screen behind the altar with the Black Virgin with the Latin inscription 'I am black but I am beautiful' so despite the millennia between us and the builders of this 12th century church, there may not be so many differences...

 ...a view of the cloisters...

 ... a side chapel...

 ...and the gate from the town from which the El Camino heads towards Santiago.

 A view across the fields to the next village.

 The church in Torres del Rio, Santa Maria de Sulpulchre modelled on the church in Jerusalem and a link with the Knights Templar.

 A way side stop with a pile of stones set on top of each other.

 And something very unusual in a Catholic country, a Shaman prayer or wish tree.

Pamplona

An early morning fisherman trying his luck in a pool under a bridge.

 El Camino follows the banks of the river for most of the day from Zubiri to Pamplona. A mill and a bridge on the outskirts of Pamplona.

 The medieval bridge into the centre of the city.

 A cross at which pilgrims would pray before entering the old walled city.

 Some of the defences of the town, a bartizan overlooking the bridge.

 Another bartizan.

 Some of the massive walls that defend the city.

 The Frances Gate.

 One of the bastions protecting the gate.

 And the gate itself.

 There is plenty to see in the city and I stopped off first at the cathedral.

 And I took a few photos of the many great buildings.

 The Cafe Iruna made famous by Hernest Hemingway as he stayed he when he visited the city which he did for three decades.

 Another pretty building in the Plaza del Castillo.

 One of the streets where they run the bulls, the festival made famous by Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun also Rises published in 1926.

 The Town Hall

 And after visiting some of the sights, it was time to get up and move on the next morning, passing the giant citadel ordered by Felipe II to a design by Italian military architect Giacomo Pelearo and built between 1571 and 1645.

 More of the earthworks and bastions.

 And then it was along a pretty stream to get out of the city,

 and over a railway but there were no trains although I did linger for a while on the off chance.

 A church en route.

 And then it was on to Puente de la Reina and this pretty little village perched on top of a hill at Cirauqui.