Sept 2: Some pictures of us

I thought I would throw in a couple of pictures of us on the hike.  The one at the top is of us on our hike to Los Arcos.  We had come to a small bridge, and we were traveling with a couple from Canada, so we asked them if they would take our picture.  Nothing really significant.  It just gives you a feel for how we try to protect ourselves from the elements while walking.  You'll notice, though, that we don't have our big backpacks on.  We are just using small string backpacks for the bare essentials during the hike.  In an effort to give our feet a break, this was the first day that we utilized a service that will take your luggage from one city to the next.  Given the ongoing heat and the ongoing condition of our feet (or at least my feet), I fully expect that we will continue to utilize this service for the next few days.

The second picture is of Linda taking a drink from the "fountain of wine".  This is at the Bodega Irache in the town of Irache.  Bodega is the Spanish equivalent of Chateau that they put on their wine labels.  The Bodega Irache has set up actually two fountains: one has red wine and the other water.  They invite everyone (over the age of 18) to help themselves to some wine to give them strength for the rest of the jouney (but not to partake too much, of course).  Linda used her Santiago scallop shell to pour the wine into and then drink from.

The final photo is our first day hiking, in the Pyrenees mountains.  At this juncture, they have set up statues of pilgrims from the Middle Ages and our friend Anthony from the UK took our picture with those statues.  I'm not sure if you can notice, but there are wind turbines in the background that run along the crest of these mountains.  The wind is very strong there, so almost all of the turbines were moving that day.  Some people even put on their jackets because it had gotten so cold (oh how we would love to have some of that colder weather now.  The last few days its been in the upper 80's with no relief in sight).  We've seen these "wind farms" in other parts of Spain as well during our hike.  Somebody said that the wind farms near Pamplona generate enough electricity for the whole city.  And they aren't at all loud.  It's more of a small hum (the pilgrim statues in the photo were actually near the base of one of the wind turbines, so we were right next to one).  Anyway, it seems like a great way to tap into and utilize a sustainable energy source, and it makes for a great photo opportunity.