Lost Kingdom of Navarre

The next stop on my whistlestop world tour of Europe is the ancient kingdom of Navarre, and specifically its capital Pamplona. I'm attending the same annual conference/networking event that took place last year in Porto, but I'm not making the same mistake of staying in suburbia, which was so boring I had to resort to blipping my wet glasses and Porto airport, because I managed to see so little of the city.

I'm staying downtown in the lovely Palacio Guendulain which means a bit of a trek to the conference, but one which is well worth it.

First impressions are very good. Navarre was unaccountably omitted as a separate chapter from Norman Davies' Vanished Kingdoms, one of my favourite books of the last five years or so, featuring only in the chapter on Aragon. I'm looking forward to filling the lacuna left by that omission. Only time for a quick romp around the centre this evening looking for an ATM, but Friday afternoon should provide some time for tourism.

Long journey today from the outskirts of Geneva to Pamplona via Madrid. It's not an easy place to get to and - as Saturday will show - certainly not an easy place to get back to Edinburgh from.