The Big Walk

Bridge of the Queen – Day 37

Outside Estella we crossed the Salt River. In the Santiago pilgrim museum we saw an original copy of the Codex Clatinus, the original book written to help pilgrims and reputedly the world’s first guidebook. The author of the Codex warned pilgrims not to allow their horses to drink from this river; his own horse had done, and had died instantly. He then related how two Basques were standing on the bank sharpening their knives ready to flay the skin from dying pilgrims’ horses – but why this didn’t make him suspicious and stop his horse from drinking is a mystery. He certainly had it in for the Basques – elsewhere in his guide he’d claimed that they regularly exposed themselves to strangers, and noted in passing that many of their cows had been fitted with chastity belts to protect them from their human neighbours.

We stop to eat a huge bread cake at a bakery in Cirauqui. This villages name means ‘nest of thieves’ but it seems safe today. It’s a tightly packed jumble of whitewashed cottages atop a steep hill, the route being hard to follow through a maze of tiny winding alleys, arched gateways and secluded squares. Beyond this the countryside begins to level off until we reach a huge, cobbled stone bridge, the Puente La Reina or ‘Queen’s bridge’. The Queen in question was Urraca, whose chalice we saw in a Leon museum – she ordered construction to help pilgrims cross the river in the eleventh century. It has six graceful arches and a slight kink in the middle – presumably where constructions began from each bank had met. Through an archway on the far side is the town that shares the bridge’s name, which sprung up to serve the pilgrims using it. It has three parallel streets, long and narrow and lined with quite magnificent brick mansions, the projecting wooden eaves of which, exquisitely carved, seem to extend half way across the road. Everything is maintained immaculately; there’s obviously a lot more wealth around in Navarra than in the crumbling villages we saw in Castille. One of the few modern touches is a high wall, enclosed by wire fencing, together with a set of lines painted on the concrete – a pelota court. It looks like squash but with only one wall. Our guidebook informs us that other popular Basque sports include boulder-lifting, the practitioners of which enjoy the status of ‘rock’ stars, and, apparently, grass-cutting. I presume they would be welcome anywhere when on tour.