Camino de Santiago Aug 17-22

private concert

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Our train ride to St. Jean Pied de Port was excellent despite only getting four hours of sleep the night before.  I managed to get my one and only croissant in the train station, which fullfilled my buttery expectations.  The hills were dotted with vibrant yellow sunflower fields and quaint country cottages.  We exited the train to find many French tourists and pilgrims wandering the streets.  Walking like zombies we found the pilgim office in town which gave us our first stamp on our credentials and showed us to our place for the night which was a good indicator of how the rooms will look here on out.  Multinational with bunk beds.  Our hostesses nickname was Le Madame of the Pilgrims who, despite a hurt ankle, was all over the place and speaking to you in French whether you uderstood her or not.  The town was nice and we both had some excellent food, including a green chili frittata that I´m still thinking about on the days walks.  As we walk day after day, our throughts have been occupied mainly of the weather, our bodies (no blisters yet!), what the next albergue will be like, and of course, FOOD.

St. Jean Pied de Port

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The next morning we woke up to people rustling around just before six and after a quick breakfast of bread and jam and a bowl, yes a bowl, of coffee we started the pilgrimage.  Evidently the first day is the hardest and it we started walking uphill as soon as we left town.  We met up with Maren, a nice German girl who also speaks French, English, some Spanish and Portuguese, who kept a fast pace and 27 km later of the Pyrenese we found ourselves waiting for the refugio to open.  The normal time between the two towns is eight hours, but we managed to finish in six, which meant sore legs in the morning.  The views along the walk were amazing and that night we were treated to a Pilgrims dinner of soup, bread, trout, yogurt, and of course wine.  

Each day has had a quirk of its own, but overall all the walks have been enjoyable.   The small towns along the way offer good places to sit and rest or pick up some food to cook later on, which is what we´ve been doing.  The refugios, or albergues, have been nice, but last night was a real treat.  The gruff German who volunteers at the refugio run by the Order of Malta quickly warmed up to us when he saw we liked his taste of music.  It was quite a sight to be sitting in Spain, and watching this German sing Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash.

Usually scallops and arrows point the way...

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Punta del Reyna was our first COLD and WET day.  I guess we couldn´t have perfect weather everyday, but walking for 6 hours in the rain certainly dampened our spirits.  After a hot shower, we took a long walk to decompress and get away from all those dang pilgrims :) 

Today was a welcomed cool walk through olive orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and blackberries along our walking paths.  We´re getting into the groove of just walking and spend more time noticing the things that take up time in our normal busy lives.  One afternoon, Jacob and I found ourselves staring at a snail crawl across the grass, and were mesmerized. 

Pamplona has been our favorite big city so far, with narrow streets, and colored buildings lining the way.  It´s also the place where we stopped and treated ourselves to a cafe con leche.  I don´t think anything else could have made me happier, except maybe splurging and having two!  We´ve been buying our dinner in the markets to save money, and always include a good bottle of local wine at the price of only 2 or 3 Euro.  The albergues tend to cost about 5 or 6 Euro so we´re managing to maintain our normal thrifty selves (although Paris through us for a loop, but I guess if you´re going to have a good time, Paris is the place to do it, right?).

church

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It´s been interesting experiencing this international groups of people.  Spanish, Italian, German, Irish, French Canadian, Korean, and us two lowly Americans.  The Germans seem to have taken a liking to us, and get excited saying, Deutch?!  Sadly we say no, only American, but we have a little group of Germans who we tend to walk with now. 

That´s it for now...send positive thoughts for good weather!