17th of August another heatwave was predicted for today and we had decided to stay one more night in Pamplona to avoid being on the bikes in more than 40° C.
There was still so much to see in this beautiful city that it was great to discover more. They had even a little exhibition about the history of pilgrimage.
Pamplona had originally been founded by the Roman Pompeius as Pompeiopolis. The city was destroyed several times by the Moors and in the year 778 by Charlemagne. Later in the 12th century the city got two more fortified cities in its close neighbourhood with different ethnic groups fighting each other, called San Cernin and San Nicolas, which were finally united by Carlos III of Navarra to one fortified city.
But the pilgrimage of Saint James pilgrims was constantly accompanying the city history over the centuries. We learnt that the original greeting was not “Buen camino” as everyone does today. It was the Latin word “Ultreia” (=”get on well”) and the other pilgrim answered “et suseia” (=”and reach higher”) So not only to stay safe on the way, but also to get enlightenment. It is still used by the locals today.
The path to enlightenment can be a very tough one as we found out in a little pilgrim shop where a Taiwanese girl was desperate with her backpack. She had such a heavy load on her shoulders making this fragile little person nearly crack under it. We helped her to decide what she really needed and what not, to make a package to be send by mail to Santiago. Two power banks for her mobile phone for not losing orientation was a bit too much especially when the Saint James signs can be seen everywhere. We showed her an organic soap in a little bottle which replaces everything: Shampoo, shower gel, dish and laundry detergent. She was so happy with our help and I told her about our project called “Less-is-more-Tour” and that we constantly try to reduce.
Being back at the hotel I finally got my first contact with a Spanish Rotarian, who wanted to meet us. It was really a little bit sad to realize that even with a Rotary sign at the hotel entrance no-one at the reception had even a clue that this club was holding its meetings at their place.
Luckily I found a contact on their web-page, but other clubs give only the meeting place as their contact and this is not really helpful if they never ever heard of Rotary.
We had agreed to meet at 7:00 in the lobby and Juan Carlos Linares came with his son Raoul.
He was responsible for the youth exchange of his Rotary Club and his younger son just left this morning from the airport to be in Attenberg for a Rotary summer Camp. His middle son was already with 11 years in France for a year and at the age of 13 for one year in Braunschweig, and finally doing his last exchange to Hawaii. We were really impressed how fluent he was in all these languages. Juan Carlos is an architect colleague running his office together with his wife. He told me that it got more and more difficult in this business and everyone makes the architect responsible for everything.
Somehow I felt like these statements were echoing in my mind as they were keeping me awake for the last years during my sleepless nights. Even my friend in France told me her story of a construction company which had caused a hole in a neighbouring wall of a historic building and the client wanted to make her pay for the reconstruction of that. It seems like the fairness concerning architects got somehow lost in a world between administration and the reality on a construction site. I could exactly share their feelings about how this profession had developed into a complex minefield, too difficult to be managed in small agencies without having a lawyer, or a supervisor etc..
Outside it suddenly started to rain heavily and a thunderstorm ended the hottest day of the week. We took a foto exchanging the flags at their Rotary Club sign and said goodbye.
Starting for dinner we still met with the two world travelers Lisa and Flori from Glauchau for a drink and moved inside as it started to rain a bit again. During dinner the temperature had dropped by 20°C. Looking forward to a cool fresh next day.
