Estella "la Bella" - falling victim to the foot curse

Last night I arrived in Estella. Very proud, cause it was another 22.2km!I was actually very tempted to stop earlier but the village just before Estella was so ugly that I decided to continue. An Albergue tried to tempt me with massages and hammocks but since they refused to advertise their price I just swept past. The walk yesterday was.... nice. And that´s about it. Rolling hills bringing me up and down (apart from one really steep climb directly after Puente La Reina which was a total bitch!), mainly wheat fields and small forests - and the first olive trees showing up! Also asparagus fields; it´s the time for asparagus right now, so there are a lot of people cutting them out of the sandy ground. Oh, yes, and... wine plantations! Very nice ;) Last night I went for another pilgrims meal and was told that wine and water was free, everything else I would have to pay for. I decided on wine - and got a whole bottle! Estella is very pretty, with a lot of amazing, mainly romanesque treasures: beautiful churches, the palace of the old kings of Navarre, a palace of justice and detailed carvings everywhere. All the buildings are built from heavy stone, but the towers or top stories are built in brick. An old spanish guy, who saw me taking pictures, stopped to tell me a lot about the history, and explained that after Navarre was conquered by the Castilianos, they stripped every church, palace etc. off their towers as they were considered militay defense positions. Later they were rebuilt - but in brick. Well, there you go, a bit of history for you. I seem to be about the only one who´s interested in that kinda stuff. Most of the others leave early, walk as much as they can, eat, sleep, get up early again. What´s the point? We´re walking on an ancient path, thousands and thousands of people walked the same way before. The amount of history is almost tangible, and the wealth and beauty of the towns along the way is due to the fact that in the middle ages everything developed along the Camino to cater for the massive stream of pilgrims. To race past all of this seems a bit of a waste to me. Since most of the other pilgrims wakl the hell out of their shoes they´re all suffering with terrible bisters etc. My shoes actually feel lovely, no rubbing or similar, so I felt quite blessed. BUT: last night I discovered a sneaky blister at the very back of my heel - bastard! Now I´m one of the "feet people".... Well, today lies a very steep climb ahead of me, and since I suffer from asthma and now have a little sore foot, I will only go up the hill (9km) and stay in the cloister there. On the way is a ´Bodega´ which has a well outside with two spouts: one with water, the other with wine - for free! I think I´ll take a nice rest there before reaching the peak. Thank God I have time! Poor Erika and Amy were on a very tight schedule, still sorry I lost them, they were quite special. As I´m only walking a bit today I´ve seeked out the library to blog a bit. So now, in the next blog, I´ll tell you about my ghostly experience in Pamplona ;))