18th April 2024 Pamplona

We slept in until about 1030!  Must have needed sleep as I went to bed about 2130H with Steve not too far behind me.

Shower time was a failure at the start – while waiting for the water to heat up I noticed that the water wasn’t draining and had overflowed a bit onto the floor, and it was getting progressively worse.  The shower was quickly turned off and so, rugged up in the towel, it was back to Google translate to let the apartment manager know there was a problem.  They came back very quickly and sent someone up to fix it.  Of course, there wasn’t a bath mat so one of the towels was used to mop up the water. They said they would send some more up later in the day.  We also asked for some powder or liquid for the washing machine and a tea towel for the dishes. 

By this time we were hungry so we set off for the Mercado de Santo Domingo – the oldest and most important market in Pamplona.  There has been a market in the same place since 1769 but, like most places, it is not the original building – the current building was erected in 1876 retaining the original style of the market.

The smells!  Fresh fish, meat, cheeses, vegetables and a store selling basic foodstuffs like dried beans etc.  We stopped and shared a small serve of our favourite (tortillas patatas), and coffee before buying an onion, white Navarran asparagus, blueberries and a bag of chard. 

It was then on to find the local Carrefours to buy pasta etc but we decided to head up to the ramparts of the citadel for a quick walk.  There was a protest happening in front of the City Hall so we kept away from that and headed back down the narrow streets to the Carrefours where we bought butter, cheese, baguette, mince, pasta sauce and some creamed rice.

On the way back to the apartment we found a souvenir shop and Steve noticed you could get your photo taken, for 3€, to look like you have been in the running of the bulls – and he was in the door very quickly!  It was so funny to watch – the man had obviously done this many times and placed Steve in three different poses and did a bit of a countdown for him to get his best expression on his face before the photo was taken.  Steve loved it and his expressions are quite convincing!

The apartment managers were doing a good job as they had arrived with the towels while we were out and asked if we wanted to leave them outside or if it was alright to bring them inside. Thank goodness for Google Translate!

I love walking the streets of Pamplona – you can feel the history of this place.  As we were both a little cold we headed back to the apartment where the central heating warmed us up very quickly.  I think the heated floors are just wonderful – they certainly kept my toes warm. 

Only problem – the washing powder hadn’t been delivered so Google Translate was used again – I said we would be happy to buy some if they didn’t supply it, but I needed to know as we had washing we needed to do before we headed off again.  They said they would drop some off in a few hours, which was fine (which they did).

Steve had decided to review what he was carrying to make the trip a bit easier and managed to find about 1.5kg to ship onto Santiago including the drone.  Even though the drone itself is only 249g the controller pack and battery add significant weight and every kilogram feels like ten when you are going up a hill. I reviewed mine and lost a small amount too. We will ship them tomorrow.

We decided it would be dinner and a Netflix movie type of night so after starting the clothes washing, I prepared some onion, asparagus and spinach that we had with our favourite once again.  The oven was a combi-oven (with no instructions) and that was fun working that out.  Eventually the tortilla was warm enough and we sat down to watch the TV before heading to bed.