Day 5: Puente de la Reina - Ayegui

Yesterday I didn't feel like taking pictures. That's the Camino, your mood swings with the ups and downs of the road. However, the view was wonderful as always and the sun was shining the whole way. We got to Estella where we stopped at "Mi Bar" to get something to eat. Two bocadillos (tortilla with tuna and tortilla with red bell pepper, both delicious) and three glasses of wine (small glasses, ok?) for 7€. Then we decided to walk 2km more until Ayegui.



We stayed at San Cipriano, an Albergue inside a sports pavilion. The good side of it was that there wasn't bunk beds on our room, on the other hand there was no heating neither. And the showers were more lukewarm than hot.. Thank god for blankets! A nice touch of this evening was to see a kid's football practice. They were about 7 years old and it was really fun to see them play around.

Day 4: Cizur Menor - Puente de la Reina

Usually we start walking at 8:00, but since we were the only pilgrims at the albergue and today's stage was fairly short (only about 20km) we decided to sleep a bit more, leaving the albergue at 9:00. We were expecting rain today, but the weather was really nice. Actually, it seemed like we were dodging dark clouds all day long: every time we looked back, it looked like it was raining on the hills we had just passed.





Today we crossed Alto del Perdón, a big hill where a famous pilgrim monument stands at the top. It was really windy up there, and the view was great.




We were thinking about getting something to eat when we got to Puente de la Reina, but then something awesome happened. About 6km before our destination, we saw two guys walking on the Camino. Since we walk faster than most peregrinos, we eventually caught them. As we were getting closer, one of them took our photograph. And he offered us some food! He said he thought he would be walking alone, but since he had found a friend and they would be having lunch together at a restaurant, he didn't need the food he was carrying. We tried to say no, but he insisted. He gave us one big "jamón" and cheese sandwich, three apples (biological, he said) and a can of Coca-Cola! Also, he gave us a Saint Francis' Cross (a Tau cross). Finally, he said a little prayer in Spanish, something like this: Que el viento sople siempre por vuestra espalda, Que el sol caliente vuestro rostro, Que la lluvia lave vuestros pensamientos y Que cualquiera que sea el Díos en que creáis vos lleve en la palma de Sus manos. It was a wonderful gift. We thanked both with words and our smiles, and we went our separate ways.





We got to Puente de la Reina at 13:15. We ate the sandwich the guy had given us and then presented ourselves at the albergue. Bernhard arrived a few hours later and then another Spanish guy. Were now waiting for some tea that Bernhard is preparing and then we'll all share a meal :)

Day 3: Larrasoaña - Cizur Menor

Today we left Larrasoaña expecting rain, but the weather was fine all day and the sun shined through the clouds now and then. Yesterday at the local minimarket we were told that the river Arga had flooded and that it would be impossible to walk some parts of the way. So the general advice was to keep to the national road until Pamplona (about 15km). Luckily, by the next day the water level had dropped enough to allow us to avoid most of this busy main road.




After all the woods and mountains, we were arriving at Pamplona, the first city in our way. When we were preparing to take the next photo, this dog appeared and insisted on being in the picture, despite his owner's callings.


We liked Pamplona very much. It reminded me of my beloved Madrid, but with a more clean look and an atmosphere that exhaled peace and quite, a very rare quality in a city.





At lunch we decided to stop at a tapas bar. Two "cañas", a couple of mini-"bocadillos" and some "patatas bravas" and we were good to go the last 5km until Cizur Menor.


Albergue Maribel is the most expensive we've experienced yet (10€ each) but with excellent conditions: we have a access to a kitchen, a tv, a washing machine (we have washed almost all our clothes) and a wonderful WiFi connection, which we've been expecting for a long time now!


I don't know when we will have access to the internet again, but we'll update the blog as soon as possible ;)

Day 2: Roscenvalles - Larrasoaña

Winter wonderland, that's the best description I can give you of this day. We have woken to a beautiful winter scenery, everything was covered in white and it had finally stopped snowing. Many of the pilgrim's decided to walk on the road to avoid getting lost due to snow-covered markings, but since we had the GPS tracks, we went for it. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.











We followed animal tracks for most of the way: rabbits, foxes, wild hogs, mice and many others that I could not identify. The silence ruled over those mountains. Even the birds seemed surprised to se us there, letting us get surprisingly close. To be honest, I felt I was in a Disney's movie. As we descended, the snow accumulated on the tree branches started to melt and kept falling on our heads for most of the way.

We stopped for a moment at Zubiri to rest our tired feet and buy something for dinner, after which it started raining. But it only took 5km more to reach Larrasoaña. That night at the albergue there were only five pilgrims, including ourselves: Bernhard, one of the Spaniards from Roncesvalles and another guy doing the Camino by bike. 6€ for a bed and a hot shower, only the essential. And we slept like babies.

Day 1: St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port - Roncesvalles

In the morning we were woken by a French old woman at 6:59. We had breakfast waiting for us: homemade hot chocolate, sliced bread, butter and jelly. At the table we met the pilgrim who we shared the albergue with that night: his name is Bernhard, he's an Albanian living in Germany. He has left his home two and a half months ago and has been walking towards Santiago since then. If that wasn't already honorable, he's doing it without any money, cellphone or watch. But he isn't doing it alone; he walks alongside God and Jesus Christ (his words), trusting that They'll provide all his needs. I must say, sharing breakfast with this man was a very humbling experience. There we were, wearing all this high tech equipment, talking to a guy who wore jeans and a collared shirt, walking the Camino believing on the good faith of others, sharing the same destination.


We parted when we started walking, as he walked fairly slower than us. But we met now and then on the way to Roncesvalles, since we frequently stopped to eat something, take photos or just enjoy the view.

Oh God, the view.. It rained all the way almost until Roscenvalles, but we still enjoyed the green fields, the snowy white hilltops and the energy that we could feel all around us.


But then it happened. On the final ascent to our destination it began to snow. As we went up, the ground became covered, then it started to accumulate. It was something we had never experienced before, both walking on snow and seeing so much of it falling from the sky. Soon all the trees were covered in it, the most beautiful view I've ever seen. We ate some, we draw on it, we felt like little children do on Christmas morning. I could never have imagined a better way to start our journey.



We arrived at Roncesvalles at 14:20 and had to wait until 15:30 for someone to open the Pilgrim's Office that supposedly opened at 16:00. With wet clothes on and losing heat fast, that waiting was turning into hypothermia! But then a hot shower came for our rescue and we were safe and warm again! By night time the priest offered all the pilgrims (we and Bernhard plus 4 Spaniards) a tour through the insides of Roncesvalles. We saw the museum and the church from inside and out. It was a great tour! I could keep on talking about it, but I said enough already. Awesome day.. and an experience we won't ever forget.

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

After a very long day, we have finally arrived at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port! We arrived at Bordeaux's airport just in time to get the 4 o'clock jetbus that took us right to Gare Saint Jean. That have us plenty of time to look for the ticket office, buy the train tickets and get some food for a snack/dinner. But just when everything seemed to be going perfectly, here comes a curve ball: our train tickets were supposed to cost us ~40€ total, but for some reason ( we didn't get why, got missed in translation) we didn't get the youth card discount. That means we paid 80 plus euros for the tickets.. double the price of our flight! Oh well.. At least we got to ride a TGV. Not that we could enjoy the ride all that much, being already dark outside.


On our arrival at Accueil Pèlerin we were greeted by a couple of lovely women that readily took the packs of our shoulders and offered us a cup of coffee/tea. The albergue was great, very clean and organized, with a pillow and a soft blanket on each bed. There was only one pilgrim staying there with us, but he was already sleeping when we arrived. The heating was so high that we ditched the sleeping bag and went only with the blanket. We each paid 2€ for the credencial + 8€ for a bed, breakfast included. It was a bit stressful and very tiresome day trying to get here, now it's time to start enjoying the moment :)

Departure

At this moment we're waiting for the opening of our boarding gate at Lisbon's airport. This is it, no turning back now!

Almost there!

Only one week to go! We leave to Bordeaux on January 26th and we're highly excited about it. We have already bought every piece of equipment we need for our journey and packed our backpacks, both so that we won't forget anything and to make sure that they stay within the limits of Easyjet's cabin baggage measurements.

On our last practice walks we also carried our packs to get used to the weight. We also did some walks in the rain, to test the waterproofness of our equipment, which passed the test with flying colors by the way! A couple of days ago we also experienced walking in some mud (a lot of it, actually); it wasn't really that funny, but it's something we'll have to deal with on the way, so better get used to that yucky feeling sooner than later. Here's some proof: