The weather has been steadily improving as the days go on. Yesterday was a gorgious day spent exploring the Napolionic fort in Pamplona, and today I was back on the road, walking through a mix of sun and rain, with wind either way. While I had a lovely time in Pamplona, it felt really good to get moving again, and my friends agreeded.

I suppose I should mention that along with walking, I’ll be doing some experiments. They will typically be a week long, and mostly be me trying out various ways of thinking/being. Starting on my second day of walking, I began my first experiment of the camino: for a week, no complaining.

This has been interesting, although not life changing. I’m generally a pretty possitive person, and don’t complain much anyways. That said, I picked a very good day to start the experiment, although I actually can’t tell you why because there is no way to say it without complaining a little.

I’ll give a fuller write up of what happened with this experiment once it’s done.

In other news, the walking is begining to get easier. Today I arrived in Puenta de la Riena, and still had enough energy to explore the town a little after arriving, which is the first time that has happened! The bridge the town is named for is beautiful, and there is a gorgeous church as well. There is so much gold leaf all over the place, which brings about mixed feeling for me. On one hand, the luster of it is stunning, but on the other, I can’t help but think about the brutal colonialism that brought this gold to Spain. I know that there are many other parts of life, things that are part of my normal routine, that are there as a result of colonialism, but nothing seems quite as blatent at that frankly beautiful display of wealth.

The church also had a really nice ceiling.

Now that I’ve figured out how easy it is to put images into my posts, I will do so! Although I can’t seem to rotate that one to make it right side up.