This year I wanted to experience another section of the Camino Frances, and inspired by last year’s cathedral-to-cathedral theme, I chose Pamplona as the starting point and Burgos as the end point.

I arrived from Bilbao completely exhausted, because I spent the night in a hostel there to get a fresh start the next day, or at least that was the idea. It turned out to be a bad decision. Hostels in big cities with no connection to the camino, where everyone is a pilgrim with the same frame of reference, this hostel was full of young people who were partying right through the night and I didn’t sleep a wink.

The Camino spirit begins already at the bus station in Bilbao when I met Hanna, a very nice woman from Sweden, who is also on her way to Pamplona and the hours on the bus fly by as we have so much to talk about. She starts her camino right from the moment we get off the bus, while I make my way to my first hostel, Ahloa.

The hostel I chose in Pamplona is very nice and I share a room with only two other female pilgrims. But I have a couple of errands I need to do when first. One is to get the Camino passport and the other is to buy cheap walking poles and I find them in the nice shop Caminoteca, which I can highly recommend.

Tired as I am, I want to explore the city a bit and at least see the cathedral. I ask a friendly woman outside if she wants to take a picture of me and the cathedral. Sure, she says. I’m intrigued as she starts walking backwards and doesn’t stop until she’s a good distance away. I had a lot of fun looking at the pictures later. Yes, that’s me there, even if I’m barely visible. But she got the cathedral anyway, which is what I had asked her for and I got the whole courtyard in front as well…

The name of the cathedral in Pamplona is Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption.

Street view on my way to have an early dinner in Plaza del Castillo before heading back to my room and tucking into bed at half past eight for a good night’s sleep.

Check out my earlier posts to get the full context of this pilgrimage and the one I did the year before, and sign up to be notified when the next post is released.

All photos copyright Anita Martinez Beijer © All rights reserved