Pamplona y Logroño

Pamplona and Logroño were awesome; however, I liked Pamplona more than Logroño. Why? Because of the history surround the running of the bulls, but we'll get to that. First stop on our excursion was La Iglesia de Santa María de Eunate which is about 15 miles from Pamplona and is part of El Camino de Santiago. El Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage route to La Catedral de Compostela in Galicia (northwest province of Spain), the supposed resting place of Saint James, one of Jesus' 12 apostles. La Iglesia de Santa María de Eunate was important because it served as a resting place for 'peregrinos' (pilgrims) traveling by way of Camino de Santiago.


Here's some pictures of the church... and of course Herman is in all of them, so good luck!

Next, we headed over to Pamplona... Where Saint Fermín is the most popular guy in town! Fermín is the patron saint of Pamplona to this day and because of Earnest Hemingway has anything and everything to do with the running of the bulls. Fermín became a saint when he was beheaded in Amiens, France as a cause of his christian beliefs (He was not martyred by his own father - got that one wrong in some postcards!). But, what does that have to do with bulls? Another saint by the name of Saint Saturnin was martyred, by being tied to a bull by his feet and being dragged to death to the place where the church named  "Our Lady the Bull" now exists in his honor. I'm assuming as a cause of one of Hemingway's books the two stories have been mixed into one. Saint Fermín has become more famous in Pamplona because he was from Pamplona .

The purpose of this event was in origin to transport the bulls from the off-site corrals where they had spent the night, to the bullring where they would be killed in the evening. Youngsters would jump among them to show off their bravado. Spanish lore says the true origin began in North-eastern Spain during the early 14th century. While transporting cattle in order to sell at the market, men would attempt to speed the process by hurrying their cattle using tactics of fear and excitement. After years of this practice, the transportation and hurrying began to turn into a competition, as young adults would attempt to race in front of the bulls and make it safely to their pens without being overtaken. When the popularity of this practice increased and was noticed more and more by the expanding population of Spanish cities, a tradition was created and stands to this day. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Running-of-the-Bulls/108541425836877

If you look at the clothing you can see that all of them are wearing red bandanas around their necks which symbolizes Fermín getting his head chopped off, the white is to represent the sacredness of

Fermín I think... As you can see, they are also carrying around newspapers in one hand. This is so they can feel if the bull is coming up to close and still watch where they are going. The goal is, to be able to run only about 3ft in front of the bull, if he touches that newspaper you've got to run fast!

I didn't get any pictures of Herman in Pamplona, but here's a small tour of the city!

Government Building



Sculpture by Rafael Huerta in 1991 - Some of the men look very similar to government officials at the time...

Cafe Iruna... They just love them some Hemingway in Pamplona! To the right of this picture there's the usual hotel that Hemingway stayed at when he visited Pamplona - which costs 1700 euro a night to stay in... For those of you who don't know, one of Hemingway's books takes place entirely in this cafe, and another takes place entirely just outside in the plaza mayor of Pamplona.

That's it for Pamplona and onto Logroño... Logroño is famous for their wine. So obviously we couldn't go there and not go to a winery and have ourselves a little tour! Here's some photos for y'all! In the second picture you have to find Herman's friend too, Panda...

After the wine tour we headed into town and they were celebrating all sorts of stuff as well. There was this band of people who were playing the drums and it was so catchy that my friends and I had to follow them. They took us through a few alleys and around a corner. My friends and I almost thought they were leading us somewhere to be abducted, but we liked the music so much that we couldn't stop following! Here's a video of the action!

I hope y'all liked the post for this week! Next week is a mystery week so be ready!