Saturday 8 May The Day of Snails, Bridges and Three Weddings

Rosa always sees the animals. When we were sliding around the muddy track along the Arga River on Friday she saw the dark grey squirrel scrambling up a tree in fright. Yesterday she saw the snails on a dried read.
'Mummy, stop. Look at those.'
Two big light brown and beige snails and three smaller ones arranged around a dried-up stalk of tall grass.
'It's no coincidence we've seen those snails' I said. 'Because we're going along like snails today.'

Luna woke me up at 6 in the morning in agony with a muscle spasm in her leg because the night before she had gone out for a stroll in the cold air in shorts straight after 6 hours of walking. After a hot bath, massage and a morning of reading she was better by lunch time.

I walked back to visit the spectacular Eunate church, a Romanesque jewel located in the middle of fields and forest and reputedly a former base of the Templar knights. It was a bit crazy to do a ten km walk before we started for the day but it was worth it. The French couple who are guardians of the church and live next door told me that it was very beautiful today because there would be a wedding there in the afternoon. And they were right. Columns of white lily's, roses and ivy brought the austere rose stone interior to life. High up, Circular windows of ochre marble diffused the light as it entered Eunate's octagonal space.

Later as we rejoined the Camino in the main street of Puente La Reina (the Queen's Bridge), thunderous fireworks were going off. It was 12.30 on a Saturday. In the Tapas bar of the Hotel Bidean, I asked a man what was going on and he pointed at his ring finger and put his arm around me. I understood. Susie rushed out to video it and came back with reports of crowds of people gathering around the explosive scene, confetti and couscous being thrown and dancing. She could barely see the bride and groom because of the crowds.

In the Bidean we had their famous tomato salad, our favourite pimientos (green peppers cooked in olive oil and salt), and tortilla. A two year old girl called Paola with big black eyes and a navy dress joined us and then ran off to her mother to get lollies for Luna and Rosa.

We stopped to take photos on the 11th century bridge spanning the River Arga and began our days walk at something like 13h00 when most pilgrims are finishing for the day...our destinations were other bridges, the medieval bridge near Lorca, the Roman bridge near Ciraquai where we wanted to take a group photograph for MS Research Australia in their lime green t-shirts. It was slow going and we realised that we wouldn't get to Estella until about nine in the evening. Miraculously, our friend Lisette sent a text message to say that she was in the area and would love to pick up the girls if they felt like a break. Susie and I walked on to Lorca through vineyards - Rioja is not far away - and over bridges.