The new town of Estella (Star) was chartered in 1090 as a stopping point for pilgrims on the Christian "camino de estellas" so-called because they followed the Milky Way west to Santiago Compostella (Saint James' field of stars). In Celtic times pilgrims followed the stars further west to the sun setting in the ocean beyond Finisterre. Over the centuries Estella engulfed the much older Basque mill town of Lizarra, built to use the power of the river here where it breaks through a steep fold of Precambrian limestone. Hemmed by its cliffs and river, Estella has stayed old, with narrow streets and tiny shops and no room for cars, while the bakeries, fruit stalls and cafes aquired new neighbors: web design, solar construction, investment, world travel.
A local woman out picking flowers guides us along the river into town. She tells us the history of the Jewish quarter where we enter past an old synagogue. The kings of Navarra invited in French and Jewish traders, and Moorish architects from Rioja to the south. In modern Estella/Lizarra, Muslim women in hejab mind their children next to Basque ladies in the square below our window -- their children run together -- and languages mix in happy play.
We hiked out to the "wine fountain" where the winery of the monastery of Iratxe flows free for pilgrims on the Way. We see our first fig and apricot trees, and the lumpy tasty "ugly tomatoes" of Tudela. This is the end of our first stretch walking on the Camino -- we reorganize our packs to catch the bus north tomorrow over the mountains to Donostia/San Sebastian, and then the train up to Idiazabal for 5 days of the Beasain festival with our friends Steve and Axun and their boys.
A local woman out picking flowers guides us along the river into town. She tells us the history of the Jewish quarter where we enter past an old synagogue. The kings of Navarra invited in French and Jewish traders, and Moorish architects from Rioja to the south. In modern Estella/Lizarra, Muslim women in hejab mind their children next to Basque ladies in the square below our window -- their children run together -- and languages mix in happy play.
We hiked out to the "wine fountain" where the winery of the monastery of Iratxe flows free for pilgrims on the Way. We see our first fig and apricot trees, and the lumpy tasty "ugly tomatoes" of Tudela. This is the end of our first stretch walking on the Camino -- we reorganize our packs to catch the bus north tomorrow over the mountains to Donostia/San Sebastian, and then the train up to Idiazabal for 5 days of the Beasain festival with our friends Steve and Axun and their boys.
