Vitalie Ciobanu

Data Analyst as a Service

Tag: asphalt

  • Stage 4. Pamplona – Puente de Reina

    Stage 4. Pamplona – Puente de Reina

    Ok, hard night. I woke up many many times…

    After having a quick breakfast, we started the walk at 8am. Crossing the city we enter a somewhat long asphalt road going up slowly. After about 7 km we enter the off-road path and start the heaviest uphill at about 10th km. We reach and cross the 700+m mountain – Sierra del Perdón, famous for its sculptures- at km 14.

    Sierra del Perdón

    The downhill part is steep as well and with some stones. Nothing too difficult but may seem like this for some people.

    Afterwards, it’s kind of straight road until the hostel. Ohhh, the hostel. We stopped at the one with the lowest cost – 9 euros per night – Albergue Padres Reparadores, https://maps.app.goo.gl/H9fVNskPhi8CbWqw7?g_st=ic. Well, you get what you pay for.

    The beds are well used. The pillows should have been changed years ago. Kitchen is, well, equipped let’s say but most of this equipment is also waiting for a new replacement. Bathroom and toilet, in the same room, are not very clean, to say the least. Either the washing machine or the dryer cost 3 euros.

    Will see how the night goes. Tomorrow we have about 22 km to Estella.

    Pamplona
    Pamplona
    Pamplona
    Today’s route
    Cizur – Zariquiegui
    The highest point
    Obanos

  • Stage 3. Llarasoaña – Pamplona

    Stage 3. Llarasoaña – Pamplona

    Rainy day 😂😂 luckily it was a short one.

    First, about the dinner and breakfast. The starter had maybe a 50% portion of hummus , for two people, with two 5-6cm sticks of bread. As main dish there was a vegetable soup, very likely to be frozen vegetables and only boiled some time. For second, we had a small portion of rice with champions, also seemed to be something pre-cooked and only warmed up or something.

    We shared the table with one Italian guy, Fabio, and one from Netherlands, Arnold, if I’m writing it correctly. Very nice guys with whom we shared the dinner and some discussion. Both plan to reach Santiago de Compostela. Good luck to them!

    Breakfast topped it all 😀 a sandwich with hummus, where we hardly noticed the taste of hummus and when opening the sandwich it looked like someone “cleaned” the fork only, because there was no hummus there 🤣 to summarize, paying 15 euros for the dinner and 5 for the breakfast at Pension San Nicolas in Larrasoaña does not worth it.

    It started raining yesterday during dinner and continued until today afternoon. That means we got the cold and somewhat wet boots today and started walking through the rainy snow 🙂

    The route is pretty nice and easy. Not much to say or show in photos, as we made fewer pictures than usual.

    After the rain stopped, the sun showed up and started shining brightly. I had to change my socks because I felt my feet would not last long in the wet boots.

    Other than this, we reached Pamplona and checked in the municipality’s hostel, Jesus and Maria. Quite big I can say, with long corridors with few 8-beds compartments. Shared rooms for the bathrooms and toilets, so anyone use any cabin available. The hostel has laundromat either free laundry and 1euro dryer (which works whenever and however it wants). We put our clothes 3 times to have them fully dry.

    For lunch we went to Baratza Makrobiotika vegan restaurant. Daily menu changes so we started with croquetas and tortilla de patatas. Then we had a very tasty vegetable soup fennel cream. Then we had a dish with a mix of other things which delicious as well. For desert we had lemon pie and chocolate cake. Everything made in house! We got another tortilla in a sandwich to do and 2 empanadas (dumplings) for tomorrow. Overall, a place to recommend!

    For dinner we made another soup from a packet we bought in the first day, added some chickpeas and fideos. We also toasted some tofu to accompany the soup.

  • Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Well, this day was much nicer than the previous one. Much more wild and beautiful.

    Roncesvalles

    Straight from the start we enter a nice path through a forest. It’s kind of short but energizing to start the day with.

    Overall, the entire day passed through nice areas, with many nice views and trails. It was mostly going down today, not lots of uphill some short and steep parts but very manageable. I’ve enjoyed today’s walk.

    We planned to finish in Zubiri, after about 22km. But we reached this city relatively quickly, by lunch time, and since there was no stores or much things to do here, we decided to go to the next bigger city after lunch, Larrasoaña.

    We had lunch in a bar-restaurant. They ran out of falafel the day before so all they could offer was some salad, potato chips, olives and a big sandwich with avocado and tomato. Not a lot but ok to replenish the energy for 5 more km.

    After having lunch we entered a small shop and bought almond milk and biscuits for tomorrow’s breakfast and chickpeas for tonight’s dinner then we moved on.

    We stopped at Pension San Nicolas, a private one, because we wanted to do the laundry and cook. Here we were told they can make us something for dinner and picnic as breakfast as well.

    Laundry: 4 euros. Dryer: 3 euros.

    Other than this, the pension is nice, clean, and bit cold. There is a fully functional kitchen, although no accessories (towels, paper etc). The hosts are nice!

    The boots hace to be left outside. Under a roof, but outside. So in the morning I expect them to be almost frozen 🙂

    Roncesvalles
    Distance to Santiago de Compostela
    Tomorrow’s plan, short route

  • Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    First day of the walk. As mentioned in the previous post, today was about the “backup” route, or winter route. Veeeerryyy boring, long distances on asphalt and sharing the road with cars. The entire distance is mostly going up, with the last kilometers having a steeper incline. Only the last 1.5 km is all going down 🙂

    So, today, exactly 15km of asphalt before entering the first trail. 1km+ of beautiful forest trail that ends in the same road with cars. Luckily today was Sunday and there were no trucks.

    Afterwards, shortly after passing the 18th km, we enter an amazing forest with beautiful views, trails, river bridges, small cascades with mostly positive, steep, elevation until the 22nd km, where we get off the forest for few hundred meters to enter another trail. Warning, the water from the spring that you can find here is not treated. Meaning you can drink it, but it’s on your own risk.

    From here, we’re following the same trail, that peaks at 1050m, until the hostel in Roncesvalles.

    The hostel is nice and looked after by volunteers. The kitchen is well equipped. Lots of tables to eat and space to prepare something to eat and then wash everything. We didn’t go to look for lunch options, since there are only 3 places nearby so vegan options are quite limited.

    After about 7km there is a commercial area with few stores, including a supermarket. The prices are very low because the store is treated as duty free, since it’s at the border between France and Spain.

    We got a can of beans, a can of artichokes and some cooked rice. With the half of the onion soup left from yesterday, we made a quick soup to which we added the beans and the rice. It ended up being more solid dish that we enjoyed a lot.

    For dinner went to Hotel Roncesvalles to see what vegan options they have. They were kind enough to make us a quinoa dish with vegetables out of the menu. With a vegetable soup as a starter, it wasn’t that bad. 2 vegetable dishes 🤦🏻‍♂️

    Start of the St. James Way
    Nice house 🙂
    Some drawings on an old building
    Pilgrim monument
    Another monument to pilgrims
    Today’s track and elevation
    Mostly all day like this
    And this, less cars though
    And this
    The first forest trail
    A nice bridge crossing the river
    The last hundred meters of uphill
    A panorama from the highest point of the route
    Map and distance left from here to Santiago
    Soup make in progress
    Our vegan lunch today