J > Browsing through our Google Photos, as a distraction from the raging storm outside, I soon found myself basking in the reflected sunshine of my trip to Navarra last October-November.  To my surprise, I discovered a batch of photos I’ve overlooked in posting about that trip.  It was the first Sunday in November, and as it turned out, the sunniest day before I returned to Scotland four weeks later.  To be fair, it was a cold day : as in the Outer Hebrides, the clearest skies are associated with cold winds from the north-west. But it was sunny and dry, and I’m used to wrapping up against the cold. It turned out to be the best day out of my trip to Navarra!

Textbook Spanish only gets you so far.  ¡Hola! ¡Adiós! ¡Buenos Tardes! ???  Hereabouts, in the Zona Media of Navarra (Estella – Tafalla/Olite – Sangüesa, roughly) – and northwards, the universal hello/goodbye seems to be …   Well, until a few days ago, I just couldn’t make out what word or words were being said, by almost everyone, so casually and at any occasion.  But then I was in Estella …

In Navarra it’s high summer, very high temperatures, and high time for a fiesta! And at the San Martìn fiestas, as in so many other towns and villages throughout Navarra, high up above the throng of fiesta-goers are the heads of the gigantes – in this case the four kings and queens.  Traditionally, the the giant kings walk – or even dance – thanks to a burly-built human inside each of them!