Unpacked (partly) and set out. (in sandals, with stick)
I keep getting turned around 90 degrees and ending up in unexpected places (like back at the hotel). Part of the reason I keep getting lost is that they're awfully stingy in putting up street signs, at least in the medieval sector.
The Plaza de Castillo is fenced off and being repaved, so I slipped one street down to Estafeta. I found it remarkably accessible for a medieval street - no curbs or steps of obstructions of any sor___
Oh my, look at that! Photos of men and bulls running up, uh, this street.
Explored the old Jewish quarter, walked around what could pass as a small ball park, then along the ramparts behind the cathedral (swallows hunting over the ramparts, and morning doves off in the trees), back around of the front of the cathedral, and took the tour. (The ticket seller didn't even wait for me to open my mouth, but addressed me in English. She also guessed that I was on the pilgrim road, possibly due to the stick.) Very nice Gothic cloister, albeit very weedy. The interior has been heavily Baroquified. And in the courtyard, an even dozen, heavily pruned catalpa trees (southern, I think) already full with beans.Am definitely, sometimes heavily, using the stick. There is minor pain and slight swelling.
Lunched on the ramparts (on lox).
Found (one section of) el camino, and followed it to a dead end - an 'albergue para peregrinos' with a sign saying that it was closed, and the address of the next refugio.
Any word that looks like Aztec is Basque.
As in any medieval city, this one was not designed for cars, and they have to fit in as best they can. This might mean toddling along behind pedestrians walking down the middle of the street. Or going up on the curb to get around a parked car. On one entry to the old city, the medieval defensive drawbridge gate (narrow, with a bad bend in the road) still stands. Cars tend to honk before entering it, to warn any unseen car or person.In the parts of the city that are newer (although they still predate cars) there are zebra crossings in which cars yield to peds. The Avenida Carlos III is a pedestrian mall, with carefully delineated sections which cars may (carefully) use to get across, or to enter the subterranean car park.
(An egret/crane/stork, white with black on the trailing edge of its wings.)
Wandered through San Saturnino (where the Gascons imported by Sancho the Great after Pamplona was destroyed by the Moors in 918). By now it's getting a bit too hot, so its back to the hotel to siestate.
(The food here is certainly pretty.)
After it cooled off a bit (to 36 degrees!) I ventured out again. Had an horchata (is it Spanish and was exported to Mexico, or Mexican and was absorbed back to the motherland?) and a helado (gelato) and tried to trace the enciero back from the Plaza de Toros to the corrals. I lost it close to the end.
After siesta, Estafeta is the place to be it seems.
I did trace back the #9 bus (the one that goes to the rail station) to a block from my hotel.
(Basque demonstration)
