San Sebastian to Pamplona to León: Starting on the Camino

posted in: Iberia 2025 | 0

I have too much to catch up on since leaving Bilbao and arriving in León, so I’m just going to give an overview and share some favorite photos from the last few days.

Here’s a rundown of the last few days:

Sunday, March 30

We left Bilbao and traveled to San Sebastian, where we had some time to explore. Then we continued to Pamplona, where we spent two nights. We had a short orientation walk that evening.

San Sebastian
San Sebastian
Basilica of Saint Mary of Coro, San Sebastian
At the end of our orientation walk in Pamplona, Mafalda, our trip leader, took us to Café Iruña for churros and chocolate.

Monday, March 31

We drove to the foothills of the Pyrenees to walk a few kilometers of the Camino de Santiago. We walked to Roncesvalles and then onto Auritz-Burguete (or Burguete-Auritz; Burguete is the Castillian name of the town, and Auritz is the Basque name). There we had lunch and enjoyed chatting with a local photographer and musician named Gonzalo before heading back to Pamplona. Then later we had a walk with Gorka, who used to run with the bulls. He shared with us about that important tradition as we walked the route from the corral to the bullring.

At the start of our walk on the Camino
Roncesvalles. The building in the middle is the Silo of Charlemagne.
The text of the song is something like this: “A bird is a bird. You can cut off its wings, and it will stay with you, but it will no longer be a bird.” This is a metaphor about the Basque country’s relationship with Spain.
Pamplona City Hall. On the ground in front you can see dark squares running from the left side of the building diagonally across to the foreground of the photo. During the running of the bulls, a heavy wooden fence is erected, and those squares serve as the base, directing the bulls in the right direction toward the bullring.
Entrance to the bull ring. Here again you can see the pavement mountings for the fence, and a section of the fence close to the door.
San Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona, who lives in a chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo. He is paraded around the city during the San Fermin Festival each year, which is when the running of the bulls takes place.

Tuesday, April 1

We left Pamplona and drove to Ubide, where we met an archaeologist who is working on the ossuary at the Silo of Charlemagne, which I pointed out in the photo of Roncesvalles above. Burials there may go back as far as the Battle of Roncesvalles, which took places in 778. From there we continued to the small town of Castrojeriz and walked from one end of town to the other along the Camino. Finally we continued to León, where we had a group dinner and then a pleasant walk in the night, with many buildings lit up. (The photo at the top of the page is the Cathedral of León.)

Castrojeriz: Church of Nuestra Señora del Manzano, and the ruins of the castle up on the hill
Castrojeriz
16th-century City Hall
Casa Botines, a house designed and built by Antoni Gaudí between 1891 and 1892.

Wednesday, April 2

We had a walking tour of León in the morning and then drove to Morgovejo, where we visited Granja Morgovejo, a farm that does various kinds of therapy using farm animals. We interacted with the animals, helped make cheese, and had lunch there. Back in León in the afternoon, we had free time to explore the city.

Basilica of San Isidoro, León.
It is Romanesque (11th century) except for the Gothic section at the far right, which was added later.
Goats at Granja Morgovejo

Photos

Here are my photo albums from the last few days:

The Camino de Santiago

Although I really want to finish this post, I would feel remiss if I didn’t offer some background about the Camino de Santiago. I’m assuming you, dear readers, have at least heard of it and know what it is. But I’ve learned some things since starting on this trip, so I want to pass on my new-found understandings.

The Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James) is not a single path. It is a network of routes leading to the city of Santiago de Compostela in the northwest of Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Some of these routes start in France, some in Portugal, and some in Spain, but all converge at the Cathedral of Santiago. Here, it is believed, lie the remains of the apostle James. 

Legend has it that a hermit named Pelayo witnessed a bright star in the night sky which he believed was a sign of the Apostle James’s tomb. Bishop Theodemir of Iria, upon hearing of Pelayo’s vision, went to the site sometime around the year 820 to investigate. He confirmed the discovery of the tomb and the remains of Saint James. The news of the discovery reached King Alfonso II of Asturias. He then ordered the construction of a chapel and later a church on the site, marking the beginning of Santiago de Compostela as a major pilgrimage site. Pope Alexander VI, in the late 15th century, declared the Camino to be one of the great pilgrimages of Christendom.

I’m actually in Santiago de Compostela as I finish writing this post. 

I’ll write more about the Camino in my next post.

As I’ve walked short segments of the Camino, I’ve had in my mind and my heart my friend Billy. He has walked the Camino multiple times, and hoped to do so once more. Sadly, he’s fighting what seems to be a losing battle against cancer. 

Buen camino, Billy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.