May 28 Los Arcos

Well OK, life's a bitch! On heat. With great crowds of handsome virile
dogs hanging around, that is! Really, I'm sure you're sick of hearing
how beautiful the walk was, how quaint the villages, stunning the
churches, friendly the people, how excellent the food and wine. Have
patience, relief will surely be coming, but not today. Today dear
reader you'll have to put up with more raving. For a start, the day
began perfectly. If you are like me, then one of the things on your
list of things that you suspect heaven will have is a fountain. Not of
water though, excellent red wine is what we want. Well today, half an
hours walk out of Estella that's what was waiting for Perigrinos on
the Camino. No pearly gates or Saint Peter with a quiz which I'd
probably fail, (lucky walking the Camino gives me a 'get out of jail
free' card) just the fountain. As much good red wine as you want at
the turn of a tap. Pity it was 8 in the morning and I was already
carrying as much as I wanted to for a 25 km walk!
You'd think it would have to be down hill from there, but the walk
today was stunning, probably the most photogenic so far. I wish I
could put the pictures up on the blog now, but they'll have to come
later. On leaving the heavenly fountain we started a gradual climb on
a mountain side forest track with occasional glimpses of the
patch-work farms below and an amazing castle or monastery on top of a
high pyramid shaped mountain in the distance. We finally reached a
summit and descended through wheat, barley, vines and olive groves to
the village of Luquin. We thought we'd have coffee here but the bar
was still shut, so no luck there. A few more warm sunny hours through
grain and vines saw us in Los Arcos. We got beds in a small Albergue
at the end of town and the got an excellent menu del dia for 10 Euros
in town.
After lunch we looked into the 12 century cathedral across the way.
Words escape me to describe how ornate the carving and intricate the
frescos. I'm sure my dour Scottish forebears would turn in their
graves at the thought of it, but it was incredible to see.