Pamplona, Spain

Our day in Pamplona was a mixed bag. We had an enjoyable, albeit long drive from Lisbon..about 11 hours. Our apartment in Pamplona was spectacular. It is located in a modern neighborhood in the "suburbs", and the apartment itself was very modern. The bathroom was like a 5 star hotel, and the kitchen was very modern also. Traveling in AirBnb locations is so much nicer than hotels. We had a reserved parking space in an underground secure garage, so we didn't have to worry about our luggage if we left some in the car..which we did. The elevator took us up a flight to just outside the door to our apartment. Very convenient. The apartment itself was very spacious and clean, and as I said, ultra modern.

So, we got up the next morning after a good nights sleep, and we had decided that we would do the number one item on the top ten best things to do list from Tripadvisor (besides be there for the running of the bulls, which won't occur until July), which was visit a natural park..kind of like our national parks in the US. This is a mostly wild area of wildlife and beautiful forest and natural pools and rivers. The girls were really looking forward to it. We put the park in Google Maps, and it found it and said it would take about an hour and a half to drive there. We followed the directions through some very pretty farm country. We were a little nervous when about an hour and fifteen minutes into the drive Ms. Google told us to turn left into a farm field bisected by a dirt road. But, we did what we were told...until the road petered out to a foot trail up the side of the mountain. We figured that it was probably the back entrance to the park which was on the other side of the mountain, and we didn't want to waste any more of the day looking for the entrance, so we headed back for home after taking some pictures of the pretty countryside. We got some pictures of horses and cows..Ellie got to pet the cow for a minute (yay), and we saw a wild fox, and the poppies and other beautiful flowers were just too pretty.

Chris was worried about everybody getting hungry so she bought us all sandwiches from the gas station convenience store, and we sat in the car and ate them. After we got back to town, Ellie had had enough, so she decided she would just veg out in the apartment which Kat and Chris and I took a stroll through town. There are some Roman ruins, and a cathedral, and the old city wall we were looking for, and we all have things we are collecting from souvenir shops; Kat is collecting keychains, Chris is collecting refrigerator magnets, and I am collecting luggage stickers. Well we walked and we walked and we found a few things, but we couldn't find the old city walls or the roman ruins, or the cathedral. We did have a nice walk, and the bus ride from the apartment was pretty smooth. About 18:00, Chris and Kat were getting hungry again, but none of the restaurants were open that early..in Spain people never eat dinner before 19:00 and many of the restaurants don't even open until 20:00. They usually linger over dinner, and so restaurants usually only get one round of customers per night, and when they are full, there is no waiting for a table to open up, because that won't be happening. I have tried to adopt this local custom, and I think it has helped me lose some weight, because when I eat dinner later, I don't snack until bedtime. But not everyone in my family is a fan of this custom. So, we decided to go home on the bus and eat in a local bakery near the apartment. Of course, when we got there, they were out of almost everything..they generally make what they will sell for the day in the morning and then when it is gone, they are out of food. But, we were able to find a few things left, and made a meal of it..not the romantic candlelight dinner alfresco on the plaza I wanted, but filling nonetheless.

So, here is the slideshow of our stay in Pamplona..hope you enjoy it!