Fortifying

I love Europe at this time of year. School from 9 to 1, lunch and a rest, and there are still many hours of daylight left to explore in.

Before school I made a quick trip to the central market to verify a blinding flash of inspiration I had during the night. And, yes, I found my missing big supermarket hidden away inside the traditional market. It wasn’t discovering Atlantis, but it made me happy. I do find that travelling solo these little successes take on greater significance than they would with someone else there.

After school I did a little tour of local bookshops, largely because it’s something Karine, my French librarian classmate had done yesterday. Then I treated myself to a txantxigorri from my pastry shop neighbour. The txantxigorri is a traditional Navarran cake loaded with cinnamon and sugar.  Thus fortified (wait for it…) I set out on my project for the day.

Pamplona has been a fortress since it has been anything. But as Spain and France coalesced into distinct countries things got serious and mountainous Spanish resources were poured into making Pamplona impregnable in order to ward off the French. It worked for a while until Napoleon took it and then the Spanish eventually got it back after a long siege. Neither event did a lot of damage to the walls so they are amazingly intact other than two large holes cut to allow the city to expand outwards.

The result of all this now is that Pamplona has a truly impressive set of walls and fortifications available to walk and explore. They make for a lovely walk; but their sheer scale and the fact they were built to work, rather than for looks, makes them hard to capture in photos.

The walking thing is a clue that the temperature has dropped to a comfortable mid-twenties. So a break for a beer in a park seemed like a sensible idea. And it was.