Day Three--Cizur Menor to Puente de la Reina

I had worried an awful lot about not being able to walk so far and granted it is only day 3 but so far the walking seems to be the easy part and the fun part. The bunk beds, snoring, possibility of cold showers, lying awake from 2 to 4 am for unknown reasons --that´s the hard stuff. So barring injury or severe weather, I think the walking part will be fine.
We (young Ina and I) arrived in Cizur Menor, a small town outside of Pamplona, in the afternoon and were very pleased. The hostel was great--hooks in the bathroom for your clothes, hooks all over the place for clothes, a woman who would run your handwashed clothes through the spin cycle of the washer so they´d dry faster on the radiator, clean & modern bathrooms, somewhat warm showers, friendly señora to tell us important things to visit on the Camino, etc. I washed clothes--the sun even came out so we could put them on drying racks on the patio. There were only four of us last night at the hostel. They say during the Holy Week that the Spaniards will come out in droves. I'm pretty sure that I've been spoiled by choosing my own bed, NOT having someone in the bunk above me, etc. When it is crowded I suspect it won´t be as pleasant. Ina, my hero--Christian--and I went out for dinner. You'd think between the three of us we´d be able to communicate better but it involves a series of drawings, etc. and we´re still not sure of what he is saying. We now understand that the aforementioned wrinkles are somewhat indicative of age as he is 59 and claims to only smoke 4 cigarettes a day (but they are those brown cigarettes that old French ladies smoke that look like cigars). The three of us got out our rough itineraries and it seemed we´d be together for several days. We set out this morning but Christian went on ahead as he is a much faster walker than the 23 year old and me (note to self: turn 59 and take up smoking). The walk was really beautiful--green rolling hills with little villages tucked here and there. We had to climb a very high and very muddy hill that took a couple of hours. It was hard as the mud added a few pounds of weight per boot and you'd try to scrape it off but it would just accumlate again. It was a bit cold and windy up there with the on and off again drizzle. I think at one point it was snowing but maybe mixed with rain. The 4th person, the night before at the hostel, was a cyclist. We had assumed he would ride on the highway but no, that morning when I told him to be careful on the highway he replied that he went on the same path as us. As Ina and I walked up the muddy and narrow path for hours we said, "There is NO way that the cyclist is going up this hill.¨ After we got down the hill and went to the restaurant for breakfast, he came in and verified that he had done so--pushing the bike up the hill, racing down the boulder and mud strewn path at top speed on the way down. Ina and I sat in the near empty restaurant applauding and saying, "bravo." I´m sure he was touched.
We detoured a couple of miles off the camino today to visit a pretty cool octagonal church reportedly built by the Knights Templar to protect pilgrims in the XII century. It just sat by itself in a green field in front of some rocky and green hills. When we got into Puente de la Reina and went to the hostel where Christian had insisted we meet up, we found it was closed. We figured that since Christian was well ahead of us by a couple of hours, he would have arrived at 1 pm. and would have gone on to the next village. We stayed here in this town which is Puente de la Reina--a very nice little village of mostly stone houses. The bridge was created centuries ago at the behest of a queen who wanted the pilgrims to have save passage across the river. So, we backtracked to the hostel run by the priests. It´s okay but no heat although there is a wood burning fireplace in the sitting room which is nice. Internet but no heat--you decide. Needless to say, we are heartbroken as we expected we´d be eating meals each night with Christian for at least the next 6 nights. We were even more saddened when we learned the next hostel that is open (many are closed until April or at least until after Easter) is about 10 miles further on--we don´t think that Christian was aware of that and suspect that he is okay. We don´t know if we will see him again but fortunately we have his e-mail address so we can send him fan mail in English which he won´t understand. We have another shortish day tomorrow--the priest came over and warned the group of mud/water problems so we will walk on the main road heading out.
Oh, the keyboard here is different and it is hard to find all the symbols and type at the same rate. Also, the internet is somewhat spendy and not always available so I won't be checking for spelling and typos--I know, I know, not really writing workshop protocol...I guess I´ll try to use this keyboard excuse to cover grammar irregularties as well.
Thanks for all the comments--love them.