Early Travel Report

The face of someone who has to leave:

Your man loves a real subway.

My hotel in Madrid was in a neighborhood where you had this

separated from this

by a giant freeway with a transit mall under it, leading to suspect that it had been Robert Moses-ed at some point. Also, there was a lot of continuing construction, which meant you couldn't really walk anywhere.

Speaking of construction, this is the facade of the station via which I left for Pamplona. Obviously there's a lot going on, but what a looker!

I eventually got here. Do the Spanish associate cycling excellence with the Germans?

View from Pamplona's old walls:

So now I am at an honest-to-god albergue, and will start the serious walking tomorrow. The hostel has a little passage behind the yard where we hang out clothes to dry, and it leads to this ominous yet exciting dead end. I think Eloise would be into it.