Day 14 - Navarre

Pamplona

Pamplona is about an hour's drive from San Sebastian and the coast. It was originally the Roman city of Pompaelo (named after Pompey, the Roman General who camped here in 75 - 74BC), and from the 10th to the 16th centuries was the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre. Since the Civil War, the conservative, religious and hard working Navarrese have transformed their ancient citadel into a prosperous industrial city. High-rise apartment blocks, manicured boulevards and factories form a protective ring around the old city, located on the banks of the Rio Arga.

Wikipedia's Pamplona entry is also well known for its annual festival of the Running of the Bulls in which bulls are released to chase people along a specified route. This starts at midday on July 6th, the Eve of San Fermin, and runs for a week. The bulls run in the morning, down a course with barricades to herd them towards the bull ring. It takes about 4 minutes for a sober human to run the course. But as the festival is one of endurance (of drinking and sleeplessness!), it's not obvious this would be the expected time for participants.

Our morning itinerary was a tour of the University of Navarre - the one founded by St. Josemaria, not the public one of the same name.

Mass at Law School at University of Navarre

Group N and another group toured the University at the same time. This was during the introductory lecture - by a journalist with poor maths skills! Normally the University regents sit in these locations.

Mass

Mass was held in the Oratory, located in the non-smoking (but with many smokers!) Law School building.

Mass at Law School at University of Navarre

The readings were in Spanish, here read by one of the students, as I recall.

Mass at Law School at University of Navarre

During the concelebrated Mass. I have a clearer picture, but both Father Mark and Bishop Geoffrey are obscured by the candles or crucifix, which seemed to be a feature of Spanish altars.

After Mass we headed into the old section of town for a very enjoyable meal, then boarded the bus for Segovia. I expect this was not a very interestng journey, as I took no more photos! The one highlight was seeing the "Moron Driving School" car - at least I presume that it was a driving school; it's possible that it was training people to become morons :-) Another play on language differences.

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