We should probably note that almost all pilgrims we have met do not take a day of preparation. Just about everyone we met yesterday left this morning. That, even though it was raining a good deal. When you get here and sense the anticipation of the journey, you understand the desire to start now, not later.

We are not in a rush. We took a day of preparation … and the weather is supposed to be much better tomorrow.

One of the requirements of the pilgrimage is to check in at the Peregrino office and receive your first stamp. The office is always crowded! Many, many pilgrims. They are an equal mix of twenty-somethings and retired folks (like us).

Next, we searched for gas for our backpacking stove (remember out 80+ packets of Starbucks Via?  We don’t want to be caught out! )

From there we explored where the trail begins. If you saw “The Way”, you’ll remember the first thing Martin Sheen did on starting his journey was go the wrong way! We at least have that one covered!

Here is a photo of the river Nive as seen looking or our hotel room window. It is beautiful here.

Well, tomorrow we begin!

We are finally under way!  After all the coffee or generous host was willing to part with into our cups, we left St. Jean … 480 miles to go.

We left Maisson Dona Maria, or hotel in St. Jean about 10:45 in the morning for the 5 mile walk to Orisson.

Within 2 blocks we encounter the first of hundreds of trail markers along the Camino.

Five short miles later, we are at Orisson (it felt like 20 short miles …)

Orisson is really beautiful, the background of the picture hardly does it justice.

Orisson is also a hostel, not a hotel. We learn what that means … There were only 6 to a room here, but that was plenty. All very nice people. All with different snoring characteristics, different temperature requirements, different bed times, etc.  I’ve learned that sleeping alone with Diane is the better way to go.  Mark that under lessons learned.

In the hostel, we all get up at the same. We all pack at the same time, eat breakfast at the same time, and hit the road at the same time. Well, almost. Diane and Bill are a bit slow. So, about 10 minutes after the crowds leave we’re on our way.  In quick note: While Bill decided that he’s not a fan of hostels, it should be noted that we would stop at Orisson again in a heart beat. Beautiful local and the staff are excellent. Also, the 5 mile shorter start is a really good way to get your trail legs.

Back to the post: as we work or way up through the Pyrenees, we join up with many good pilgrims to share some time with. The photo below is of Diane with Janice, a genuinely nice New Zealander, who is also a committed Christian doing the walk as a true pilgrimage. She is the third Christian pilgrim we’ve met. This is not to say that there aren’t many others; we just haven’t met them or faith didn’t come up in the conversation.

The hike to the pass was both eerie and awesome. Often, the fog would shroud everything beyond 100 yards. At other times the view was breathtaking.

The next photo is the border of France and Spain. We made it! While we took a moment to shake off our fear of the Gendarmes catching us for our Metro mishap, we were quickly informed about Interpol … we’ll never be safe again I guess!

About 6 miles past the border we came to Roncesvalles, the typical stopping spot for Pilgrims. A German movie crew was there filming a movie about the Camino. We decided against a cameo role. Here’s a photo of the hostel in Roncesvalles.

We had lunch there then decided to push on a few more miles.

We finally came to a stop in Espinal, where we found a great Casa Rural with a room for just Diane and I! Yippee!  15 miles today, and life is good.

Once again, my time is limited for this post. The short story is: We walked about 22 miles today (fun but exhausting) and are now within about 4 miles of Pamplona.

The trail through the Spanish side of the Pyrenees is also beautiful, but in a different sort of way. Less rugged, but very lush.

At times, you follow a road, and others you are on your own trail.

The Vuelta a Espana starts tomorrow from downtown Pamplona at around noon so we had hoped to be within striking distance. We are!

We didn’t arrive until about 6:00, or about 9.5 hours of walking. A bit much.

The coolest thing was as we were walking back to the hotel after dinner (yes, we could still walk … though barely) we saw a car in the nearby gas station with signs on it indicating that it was a support vehicle for the race. Actually, it was Alberto Contador’s support car (if you are familiar with cycling, you’ll know that he is one of the favorites).

We talked to the man and asked when the race starts (1:20), and where, and how his team is doing (of course he said, quite well.  What else would he say? )

We’re not sure if we’ll stay tomorrow night in downtown Pamplona; maybe. Or maybe we walk another 10-15 miles. Such is the life of Pilgrims.

This morning started casually as we knew that we only had about 3 or 4 miles to go to the center of Pamplona and the start of the race.  The hotel we stayed at was about 1 km. off the Camino, but was far enough that we had no pilgrim crowds.

On reaching the Camino, there they were! The streets were alive with pilgrims working their way to the next rest stop. Many had likely started at Loarisoana, about 7 miles back. We lazy pilgrims just started about 1km. back. Well, a pilgrim must walk their own Camino.

We reached the gates to the old city about 11:00,

We then began both exploring the old city and looking for where the race started. Here is one of the buildings in the old city

We finally reached the square where the race was to begin and it was buzzing with excitement

After each of the riders signed in and we’re introduced, they lined up for their 100+ mile ride (they do this every day for 3 weeks … and we complain about walking a few miles!)

The picture below is what an amateur photographer takes and explains why real photographers still make money. It’s bad! But imagine if you will, 180 cyclists lined up at a starting line ready to ride.  Well, that’s sort of what this picture was supposed to capture.

After the race, we enjoyed a late lunch, then back on the road. While warmer in the afternoon, we like the quieter nature of the Camino then. Most pilgrims have found their hostel by then, so it’s just us misfit pilgrims still on the road. But as I said, we do like it that way.

Again we chose a hotel for the night. At roughly 50 euro for a 3 star place, we’re becoming accustomed to this lifestyle.

We have already searched out the local “menu de Peregrino”, so we know what’s for dinner tonight!

More later …

Day 5 and we’re still making forward progress! We left Zizur Maior and returned back on to the Camino. Once on the Camino, we were greeted by the many, many Peregrinos who were waiting for us. Seriously, over the course of the next several hours, we ran into quite a few of the folks we’d met from the train ride on. That was cool!

We traveled about 15 miles today, crossing over the windmill ladened hills to the west of Pamplona.  At the top of the ridge, there are metal statues of Pilgrims (see the movie, The Way, for more about them). Here’s Diane with some of our friends:

A few miles later, lunch called us as it did a few score of our fellow pilgrims. Here’s the scene outside the first restaurant that the group saw since the hills.

Our last stop of the day was to see the small cathedral of Eunate. Possibly built by the Knights Templarfor the pilgrims in the 12th century, it is a rare 8 sided church.

Most of the Peregrinos did not make it out here. It adds about 3 miles to the trip which can be a lot. Also, there seems to be a shortage of space in the main hostels, so people are trying to get to the hostels early. If you have some flexibility, there are many secondary hostels, Casa Rurales, or hotels available … but that may require more walking and a bit more Euros.

Readers have asked us, how do we know where the trail is. Are we worried about getting lost? (Actually, no reader has asked us that … but they should have! )

The first clue that you are on track is the crowd. Just follow the crowd.

The next trick to staying on track is to look for signs. Sometimes, really big signs. Some are on the ground:

Some big signs are on walls:

Some free standing:

In some of the towns, they put these silver plaques in the sidewalk every 15 feet or do:

Now, most of the time, you are not in towns but on country trails. There, the solution is yellow paint!  Anything that can be painted will be painted with yellow arrows:

Also, the oldest signs used a white and red stripe to indicate the trail, as:

The net here is that is very difficult to get lost on the Camino!

We are starting to feel the rush for rooms!  It seems there is a major car race this weekend in Logrono (our stop for Sunday). Add to that a week-long festival in Los Arcos (tomorrow’s stop), and everything is booked!  Making a long story short, we were blessed with meeting a woman who got on the phone and just stared calling everyone she knew … and she knew a lot of people, and now we have rooms.  So, Willow, to your question: yes, we do know how far we’re going … at least when we are unsure of room availability.

Numbers: This is our 6th day of walking.  Today, we covered just under 15 miles. Our total is: 80 miles.  Our longest day: 22 miles.

On leaving Puente la Reina, the first thing you do is cross the Puente la Reina! Seems one of the queens, several centuries ago, had the bridge built for the safety of the pilgrims.

The views on today’s hike were awesome. We are now 2 mountain ridges west of Pamplona. Here was the view looking back east this morning:

And now, looking west:

One quick bit of Peregrino background. The Peregrino does 2 things of first importance on arriving at the new location. The first is to clean up!  6 -10 hours of trail dust is pretty gnarly.  The second is to wash their clothes so that there is enough time for them to dry. Most Peregrinos only have 2 sets of clothes, so keeping the backup set clean is really important. I snapped this picture of the clothes line at one of the hostels in Puente la Reina.

For those of us in hotel rooms, we wash our clothes in the sink, then hang them about in our rooms like the Beverley Hillbillies!

Hasta Manana!