It is still quite hot...

Well we reached Puente la Reina at midday today and are stopping at the Padres Reparadores albergue.  I am catching up on our activities for the last couple of days.  The hot weather is continuing, which is a bit trying.  Although probably better than rain!

Well back to yesterday (Thursday)…

The Melbourne chapter of the Confraternity of Saint James (a non-denominational association of former and current pilgrims, and others interested in the history and culture of Spain) meets for dinner on the last Friday of the month.  We went to the July and August dinners.  At the August dinner we met someone who was starting a couple of days after we did.  We met up with him and his New Zealand travelling companion from Christchurch (Paul) when we were having breakfast before leaving Cizur Menor.  They had already walked the 5 km from Pamplona!  In spite of good intentions, so far we are not very good at early starts!  Probably won’t see them again unless we skip forward by bus and catch up.

Cizur Menor is at about 480m altitude.  We walked to the top of the ridge, Alto de Perdon (790m) and back down to Uterga (approx. 500m).  Our bags were waiting for us when we got there and we enjoyed our private room.  We also thoroughly enjoyed our evening meal with fellow pilgrims – four Canadians and a German.

The Alto de Perdon marks the change from the Pamplona basin to a more Mediterranean climate.  The ridge is dominated by 40 windmills, which I found quite majestic.  (I will eventually work out how to reduce the file size so I can upload some photos!)  The descent from the ridge was quite steep and rocky – not unlike the descent into Zubiri, but I coped much better.  It was much easier with just a daypack.

We arrived at Puente la Reina at about midday today, having walked the approx 6.6 km with only a stop at Muruzabel for an orange juice. 

On a more personal note, Anna is not particularly charmed with the local insects, as they have taken a fancy to her right arm, which is currently covered in horrible large red welts.  I however, have also developed Anna’s “allergy to the sun” (as diagnosed by the pharmacist in Cizur Menor).  This place does not seem to like us!

Greetings from Cizur Menor

Well last night we had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to eat dinner.  In spite of not walking, we were rather hungry.  Although we had breakfast at Zubiri, we had only had an ice-cream whilst waiting for the alberque to open.  In Spain the evening meal is quite late – much too late for pilgrims who like to get an early start.  Along the Camino, reasonably priced “Pilgrims’ Meals” are often available, rather earlier than normal Spanish dinner time.  However we couldn’t find anywhere – we should have looked at the notice board at the alberque!  We ended up having a kebab and fries – not very Spanish, but quite tasty.

Along the Camino we have met some great people.  Although private accommodation can have its advantages, the camaraderie in the alberques is great.  (The occasional episode of snoring isn’t necessarily quite so great!)  It is also good for getting an early start as everyone else is preparing to leave.  We joined others for a very delicious breakfast at a café across the road before we set off.

Although I am feeling very much better, we decided to take it easy today and only walked just over 5 km to Cizur Menor.  We met up again with some people we had met on the train from Bayonne to St Jean and had a cool drink with them – it was already in the high 20s.  They were pushing on but we waited until the alberque opened, had a shower and had a lunchtime “pilgrims’ meal”. We have spent the afternoon planning and catching up.

We have made the decision to have our bags transported tomorrow!  It is again forecast to be in the 30s, so we plan an early start.  We will just take small backpacks and lots of water.  We have reserved a double room at Uterga.  It is about 12 km, but it is quite a climb!  Hope everything goes according to plan.  So far neither Anna nor I have blisters.  I am wearing the same boots and socks in which I trained at home, but it is a lot hotter!  (And of course I didn’t do as much training as I should have!)

The first few days...

I wrote this yesterday (Tuesday September 24), but didn't manage to upload it...

I now realise that my happily saying that we planned to walk approximately 20 kilometres a day for 40 days with five additional rest days was (almost certainly) totally unrealistic!  I hadn’t done anywhere near enough training – not improved by the fact that it was over 30°C yesterday!  I have decided that “Our Camino” is going to include public transport where needed.  (We have met a number of people, who for various reasons; are having their bags transported – so far we have carried our own bags!)

Instead of taking the “Napoleon Route” over the Pyrenees, which I am sure would have been spectacular; we took the lower route through Valcarlos.  We stopped Saturday night at the municipal albergue at Valcarlos, which we had to ourselves.  Having walked on the highway for some of Saturday, decided I didn’t want to repeat this – there is virtually no shoulder on the highway.  Rather scary!  So we took a 25€ taxi ride from Valcarlos to just past Ganecoleta, from where we walked to the Ibaneta Pass and on to Roncesvalles.  We decided to continue to Espinal, where we stopped the night.  Yesterday started ok – we had morning tea at Gerendiain and walked on and on and on.  I found the downhill rocky terrain into Zubiri very trying.  In spite of drinking about 3 litres of water and wearing a hat, I became quite dehydrated.  We had been passed by many pilgrims and I was worried that we might not find accommodation.  As we entered Zubiri, there was someone on the Puente de la Rabia offering accommodation at the nearby Amets Hotel, which I pleaded with Anna to accept.  Had a good night but decided to catch the bus to Pamploma.  We bought some Spanish Sim cards for our phones (it will be great to be able to communicate!) and are stopping the night at Jesus y Maria Alberque.  Having dealt with washing (thanks Anna!), we are about to look at the area around the alberque.

Our journey to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port

I started writing this at Vernon Station whilst waiting for the 10:53am train.  The best laid plans of mice and men...This morning (Friday) things didn't quite pan out as we had planned and I will be very glad when we are on the train to Bayonne.

We slept well on Thursday night, woke early, packed and arrived at breakfast at 8am.  Breakfast was delicious and our host very interesting. Our fellow guests, a young couple from Tel Aviv were also pleasant company.  We had asked our host about ordering a taxi to get back to Vernon for the 9:53am Paris train, for which we already had tickets. She said she would drop us at the bus station and we would easily make the 9:53am train.  Well it didn't quite happen!  The bus didn't actually leave until two minutes after the train left Vernon.  However we are able to use our tickets for the 10:53am train, it just makes it a bit tighter in Paris to make the Bayonne/St-Jean-Pied-de-Port train (for which I had paid, I think, $A171, not to mention reaching our booked accommodation at St-Jean for Friday night.  It was a triffle annoying as there was a local bus coming down the street, going to Vernon, when we came out to the car to be driven to the bus station.  Also, even though the taxi cost just just under 17 Euro the previous day, it would have been feasible.  Not to mention if we had stopped at the Hotel Normanby which was originally suggested.  However, I am just letting this go and just hoping we make the Bayonne train.

Thie following was written on the train to Bayonne...

We did make it!  We duly got the 10:53am train from Vernon.  We lined up at the door for a quick escape.  Fortunately we knew where we were going at St Lazare as it was the reverse of the day before's trip.  (Just as well as the station is in two parts and some distance apart!)  Anna had the right change for the metro tickets as the machine only accepts coins or a card!  We found the right platform and stepped straight onto a train to Montparnasse (although the trains are pretty close together).  We arrived at Montparnasse with about 15 minutes to get to the Bayonne train.

It was such a relief to get to the first class seats facing each other, which we had so carefully selected months ago.  I was glad we had chosen to travel on the TGV as it was great to have have the opportunity to look out the window at the passing countryside. 

When we were at Vernon, Anna went to the supermarket and got some food which was quite reasonably priced.  However, we decided to save it for later as I decided to shout us to the Menu Dejeuner on the train.  We spent ages trying to translate the French, but just ended up buying one of each of the ones on offer. The food was deliciouus, even if I am still not to sure what it was!  The sun coming through the window was glorious.

Anyway, we changed trains at Bayonne and joined the many pilgrims arriving at St-Jean-Pied-de-Port.  We easily found our booked accommodation and got to the Pilgrim's Office before it closed to get our Pilgrim's Passport.

Monet's Garden Giverny

Well Anna and I have arrived in Europe.   We arrived in Paris this morning just before 7am.  I had originally insisted that we didn't leave for the start of the Camino until Friday.  However, after having afternoon tea with some friends a bit over a week ago, I decided what we could do on this "spare" day - go to Giverny.  There had been an exhibition at the NGV in Melbourne for a number of months called "Monet's Garden".  I had been months ago but my friend had been to the exhibition not long we met up.  I had loved the exhibition, but hadn't thought of actually going to the garden when we were here. However we did.  From the airport we caught three different trains on our journey to Vernon - the nearest station to the garden.  We got a taxi to where we are staying - about a couple of kilometres past the the garden and dropped off our luggage.  We were lucky to get the taxi.  We were initially not first in the queue, however as there were no taxis in sight, everyone else decided to catch the shuttle bus after all.  We were getting a bit desperate as we wanted to drop our bags off first!  However lo and behold, a taxi arrived.  We dropped our stuff at the very nice B&B where we are staying and walked back the the garden.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I am about to go to bed now.  Although we both slept on the plane on the leg from Singapore to Paris - we left Singapore at 11:55pm Wednesday night, we are a  bit tired! 

It's come too soon!

I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a volunteer, but this year I am also a pilgrim.  My youngest daughter and I intend to travel the Camino in Spain.  We have been preparing all year (after a fashion!).  But now with just over a day before departure, we are in a flurry of last minute preparations.  My plan is that you will be able to follow our travels, if you so desire.