Day 10 - Navarrete

A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim

Lights on at six, lots of shuffling and sniffling, folding of sleeping bags, collecting of (hopefully) dry laundry, taping of sore feet, and stuffing of packs, accompanied by mournful sidelong glances at last night´s worst snorers.

Out the door at 7:00 and quick into the first cafe for a cafe con leche  (cafe au lait) and a sticky bun.  Then off into the still-dark looking for the way markers. Quick away while its still cool.

The next 6 to 8 hours consist of trudging - thus far in bright sunshine every day - interrupted by a steady series of breaks  At these stops, some combination of: drinking water and refilling water bottles at fountains, taking off shoes and socks to air feet and, if necessary, add/adjust bandages, and drinking coffee, juice or water and eating lunch at bars (cafes).

Between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, arrive at the destination, proceed directly to the albergue (hostel), grab a (more or less comfortable) bunk, take a shower and put on the clean set of clothes, hand wash the dirty clothes and hang them out to dry before morning.

For the next 5 or 6 hours, hobble about the town, check out the cathedral and/or other notable sites, drink beer (me) or water (Pauline) in a cafe, eat a "Pilgrim menu" dinner in a restaurant. By 8:00 pm or so, back into the albergue to read up on the next day´s challenge, brush teeth and then lights out by 9:00 or shortly thereafter.

All of this in the company of a steady stream of other pilgrims doing exactly the same things.





Day Six - Sunday

A day off the road today - after five days of steady progress, time to rest up and let the muscles recover a bit. We´re in Estella - a beautiful medieval town with lots to see. 
So far the countryside has been very agricultural: the first few days in the mountains and foothills, lots of cows and sheep, and some horses. Then, approaching Pampalona, miles of very neatly plowed fields, but totally barren. We wonder if the crop, whatever it was, has already been harvested, but the cynic in me worries that the EU economic policy dictates that they not plant the fields.

Yesterday it was more crops: definitely almonds, olives and grapes, others that may have been figs and artichokes - hard to know.

And now, another apology:  just spent a hour trying to decipher Spanish instructions on how to upload pictures to this blog - apparently unsuccessfully.   Good night (sigh).

Day Four - Sept 24th

Pamplona yesterday, Puente la Reina today - see map link.  Four days of 20+ km, most of it up and down. (The only Camino joke in the world: "The Camino never saw a mountain range it didn´t want to cross!") The hot sunny weather is great in the morning and evening, a little less great at 3 pm after 6 of 7 hours of backpacking. Sore feet and legs all round. Seems like we´ve been out here weeks already.

Apparently my third language is Italian - whenever I try to say something in Spanish all it seems I can come up with is twenty year-old tourist Italian. The Spanish folks seem to find it confusing.

Walking with Spanish, French, Germans, a few Italians, English, Australians, Canadians, and lots of Irish, for some reason.  Perhaps because theirs is another strongly Catholic country?

Views are consistently amazing, but won´t be able to share anything until I find a computer with a free USB port, I´m afraid.

Cheers

Day One: St. Jean Pied de Port

Out the Port St. Jacques at 8 a.m. and up, up, and up across the Pyrenees for 6 hours - spectacular vistas and beautiful weather, and then down, down, down to Roncesvales - if anything more painful, but 28 kilometres after we set out, a beautiful renovated hostel, clothes cleaned, a great "Pilgrim supper" in a local cafe and then a very moving evening Pilgrim Mass in a twelth century church.

And then another discovery:  a Spanish keyboard and no USB drive means no possibility of posting of photos, at least this time. 

Now to test drive that new MEC sleeping bag!

Day Zero

St. Jean Pied de Port - arrived by train at about 5 pm. 
On the way from the train to the Peregrino Information Centre an elderly French woman standing at the end of her walk with her hands clasped at her chest whispered to us, "Bravo .... Bon Courage."

Day 1 minus 1

Buses, trains and planes.  Pauline pointed out that we crossed the ocean at 1000 miles per hour so that we could walk 800 kilometres across the earth in 40 days.
But with a couple of minor hitches, we made it.

Okay, now let's see if I can upload a picture directly from our camera ...

The two holy terrors we're leaving behind!

And one more ...

I'm going to try to add my map location to this post. 

Still Day One minus 8 ...

.... and I'm emboldened to try another challenge: posting a photo. This is our destination - the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.

Day one minus 8

If this works I will have conquered the first challenge: posting a message on the blog. Ten points to the first person to acknowledge that she/he has seen this by commenting.