1 October sunny, cool, nice day for a ride; too hot in afternoon for comfortable walking
Boogs left Puente la Reina by the puente.

QB walked and KB rode but made a poor choice of roads. Decided to try riding the camino. Big mistake. Roman road in poor condition with no exit until a 130 meter climb that could not be cycled and required a very hard and difficult push due to the steepness and rocky road. Could not have been fun for the walkers either. For once, walkers were faster than cyclists. QB trudged the Roman roads and believes the Empire does a far worse job of maintaining roads than CalTrans. Very hard on feet. Watched as a couple of people tried to haul a bike up some dirt after a Roman bridge. Some nasty climbs for walkers and 12 miles mysteriously became 16.5.

KB abandoned Chemin quickly as I could and rode on the deserted road which parallels the autoroute and is basically not used except for local very very small hilltop village entry. Nice to ride on a private bike road. One car in an hour or so.

In Estella a museum was next to the tourist office. A museum of Basque art featuring Gustavo de Maeztu y Whitney. Also a church with some interesting sculptures on the front, possibly saints, one holding what appears to be a stack of pancakes and another seems to have a small pig attached to the column next to him.

http://www.euskomedia.org/aunamendi/90969

Some very interesting work, better than as shown on the above URL.

Off to see two locked 12th century churches – a lot of locked ones in Spain and then met up with QB charging in after a 16 mile (so gps said) walk. More red peppers in olive oil for lunch, with excellent frites. Extra large cervezas. Dinner not until 8:30.

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