Why do the cars get a tunnel?

Total distance today = 12.5 miles

Total ascent today = 1,181 ft

Cumulative distance traveled on the Camino = 55.5 miles

Another mountaintop climb today.  But it was a beautiful day, after the morning fog burned off.  We left Pamplona following the silver markers in the sidewalk

and were soon in the Cizur Menor suburb. A quick stop in a small grocery and we had the makings for our lunch - you guessed it - ham and cheese.

Soon we were walking up the hillside towards a huge windmill farm. As you can see the path went through farm fields almost all the way up. 

And where there are windmills there is wind. It was very breezy all day.  About halfway up we had a great view looking back to Pamplona over the fields of wheat and wildflowers. 

Looking the other way, we see that the cars get to go through a tunnel. "NO FAIR", we cry "where is the pilgrim's tunnel."

At the top of the mountain is a sculpture to honor the pilgrims. It's quite striking with the sky as a backdrop. 

But we couldn't help getting into the picture. 

At the top of Alto de Perdon, we are at the halfway mark for the day, and it's mostly downhill...steeply downhill for the first 2 km. 

It soon levels out and we have nice walking through fields and three villages. In the town of Obana, the trail markers were bronze shells laid in the walkway. 

It's amazing all the different ways the path is marked. It's up to the local confraternities to maintain and mark the way in their area. So some are quite fine while others are just painted yellow arrows on a wall or sign post. 

Puente La Reina, "Where all roads become one" is our destination for tonight. This is the place where the routes from all over Europe unite to a single path to Santiago de Compestela. 

Lee-Ann has her first blister tonight but is drowning it in a local cabernet (Dave's edit).  Tomorrow is another early day, headed west...