The University of Navarra

 

Hello friends! After another break, we're back. The month of August turned out to be packed with trips, which made it virtually impossible to keep the blog up-to-date. However, now that school is a week away and all three munchkins will be attending, I hope to have some extra time on my hands (for once!) to tell you guys where we've been.

As you can see from the picture above, one of the highlights of the trip to Pamplona in early August was touring the University of Navarra, founded by St. Josemaria Escriva (whose statue is above). Because Martha works with Admissions, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of several places that are not typically open to the public, such as the old-fashioned train car that's installed in the basement of the Central Building as well as the replica of a ship captain's chamber (seen below).

From the Central Building we walked to the new and fabulous School of Economics Building, which was only completed a few months ago (below).

Each School has its own oratory, which made it fun to compare and contrast the various styles and sizes that the University has employed to give each a different flavor. The common denominator with all of these is always good taste.

 

 

Then we went to the School of Communications Building (below, left), which is known as "fcom". Many people are suprised to find that most of the campus has modern-style buildings.

 

In the afternoon we walked around the historical center of Pamplona. Because it is one of the cities that sits on the northern route of the Camino de Santiago (the famous Pilgrimage trail that ends in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia), we saw numbers of backpackers walking through town. It's easy to tell that they are pilgrims because they all hang a white shell on their packs. The city marks the Camino de Santiago with shell emblems along the street, and part of the way intersects with the street Estafeta, which is where the bulls run through every July on their way to the Plaza de Toros.

Above: Tita and the kids at the Ayuntamiento (Town hall); right: a shot of the Cathedral;

As you can imagine, Estafeta street lies at the heart of the city and is packed with people, delicious food ("pinchos"), tourists and shops. Above we did a little renactment of the running of the bulls with Antonio playing the part of the runner and Francisco as the fierce bull chasing him!

Pamplona's strategic location on the northern border made it an ideal fortress city to keep out French invaders. As such, the city's identity is strongly rooted in its fortifications, and particularly in the Citadel which sits in the center of the city.

Picture above: the crew keeping watch at the "Media Luna" (Half-Moon) fortification.

And finally, I'll throw in some cute pictures of the kids during the trip.