Snowing from Estella

I´m currently in the town of Los Arcos. Four of us set off from Estella this morning in high spirits and falling snow. While it wasn´t heavy or constant, it was thick, gloopy stuff. Flakes the size of walnuts!

It didn´t stick to the roads, but did most everywhere else.

We climbed a bit of a hill today, so we were actually walking into heavier and heavier snow as we went.

Fortunately, we also passed the famous wine fountain in Irache. There we generally made fools of ourselves drinking from and posing for photos next to the fountain. We actually didn´t drink a whole lot of wine, because it was about 10:00am!

We continued climbing into the snowfall. By the time we reached Villamajor, in the shadows of the castle of Montjardin, it was downright Christmassy.

Fortunately, it was downhill from there, and we soon left the snow behind. The road wound around hills and ridges through ancient vinyards with gnarled vines that looked rather like the dead thrusting up their misshapen limbs and climbing up out of the ground.

By the time we reached Los Arcos, we had walked 21km and were happy to shower and dinner and attend the Saturday evening Mass at the local parish of Santa Maria. While on the outside, it´s a Romanesque block with a 16th century domed tower, inside it´s a riot of gold baroque. I counted nine altars, and I´m sure I missed some.

The place was utterly overwhelming.

This albergue has both wifi and a computer, and I´m trying to simultaneously type this entry while I upload photos from my phone. The Flickr app keeps crashing, so I don´t think I´ll catch up.

The best link for the photos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomryng/.