Pilgrims on the Way

The entrance to Los Arcos is not particularly encouraging. But looks can be deceiving! The further you get in, the prettier (and more medieval) it gets. From this photo, you’d be forgiven for thinking it a frontier town in the American west! Shortly after this photo was taken, we ran into Billy. He was waiting for a Farmacia to open, […]

Have I mentioned how beautiful Navarra is? As you can see, the storm has passed for the moment. The sun shines above, and the clouds are retreating to the horizon. To the left, we see a vineyard, with its ancient vines, gnarled like zombie hands reaching up through the soil. Wait, what? Date: 05 April 2016 Place: between Villamayor de […]

Today’s photo requires some backstory. One year ago today, I sent my application to the Archdiocese of Seattle to discern for the diaconate. I felt that God was calling me to be a deacon. Ultimately, the Archdiocese rejected my application. This was a heart-breaking moment for me. I still felt God calling me to serve Him, but now I was […]

The land between Villamayor and Los Arcos is just beautiful. The weather was cool and breezy – you can see Francine’s skirt and pack cover are trying to run away. Although it’s not raining in this photo, the looming storm clouds above and the mud below warn us that this is but a lull in the storm. The constant winding […]

Found this building just sort of in the middle of nowhere. It appears to be a cistern of some sort. It roughly corresponds to a place marked “Corral del Santo” on the map, but who knows? There were definite signs that some person or persons had used this as a habitation recently. Date: 05 April 2016 Place: between Villamayor de […]

Offered without comment. Date: 05 April 2016 Place: just past Villamayor de Monjardin (Navarra, Spain) The Day’s Map:

Navarra is one of the most consistently beautiful countries I’ve been to. This vista may be seen when descending from Villamayor de Monjardin. You can see the rich, red earth that provides a home for vineyards dating back to Roman times. The green hills are home to sheep, kept here by the Basques since before the Romans even arrived. There […]

Villamayor de Monjardin has a lovely monument to the Christian King who captured its castle and liberated the area from its Moorish occupiers. King Sancho Garcés was born in about 860 and seized the throne of Pamplona in 905, having married the former king’s granddaughter. Throughout his twenty year reign, he constantly enlarged his tiny kingdom at the expense of […]

This is the front of the local parish church in Villamayor, the twelfth century Iglesia de San Andrés. The interior, which we did not visit this time around, is rather plain, as it was “restored” from 1973 through 1984. This roughly coincides to a period I like to call “Neo-iconoclasm”. Date: 05 April 2016 Place: Villamayor de Monjardin (Navarra, Spain) […]

The Fuente de los Moros – the fountain of the Moors – is a twelfth century cistern located on the outskirts of Villamayor de Monjardin. While the construction that you see here is certainly of Christian construction, it is true that the castle on the hill above (seen on the left in the photo) was once an Islamic fortification. King […]