Today was the first day of our camino we had a nice wake around 6 am for breakfast with consisted of french bread, butter, marmalade and a bowl full of coffee. Instant coffee, not the good stuff from the machine.
We have made great friends of Jonathon, from Australia, Christina and Ana, cousins from Portugal, and they were our bunk mates for the noche.
We decided to bring hike snackies with us so we stopped by the grocery store to buy a few apples, oranges, almonds, and some bread.
Carson and I visited the church to say a prayer and give a dedication to the camino.
When we left town, the streets went up. We knew the day would be tough, but we had no idea how tough. Two girls from California, Nicole and Suzannne were hiking their inspiration from the movie the way. From the corner uphill where we met the girls, everybody spread out. We had all ups with a few little flats today. We came across the albergue we debated staying at up in the mountains, named Orisson, and decided to share salchichon and queso sandwich.
Bocadillo, is the word, sandwiches are for nerds! France and Spain have delicious bread... french bread loaf is usually only 1€. Our pitstop for a sandwich was what many other pilgrims decided to do.
The views thoughout the Pyranees are ever changing. We wanted to stand still and freeze every view we could to remember this. We could stand in 1 spot to see amazing mountains and turn the other way to see horses, sheep and cows. The animals were either painted with a color, or had dinner bells so their owners could locate them. It was great to see so much free land for the animals to roam. Not like the midwest at all.
In France, we saw a lot of wooden fighting position posts that were set up in WW2.
We have definitely worked our legs, feet, arms and bodies to the point that we feel like we have run a marathon. It is incredible to know what we are capable with having some mountains to climb food and water.
There were 2 water fountains along the pass and we needed to refresh with both of them, even with our camelbacks. One was a nice monument of the fountain of Rolan, then the other side you see animals and trees. The fountain was fresh spring water coming from the ground and tasted a lil bit particley but completely hit the spot. We were spent!! Just a few feet after we continue on, we arrived to Spain from France. It's really not a super obvious border like MN to WI, but it does say Navarra, for the region. Many pilgrims didn't notice the change between countries, a as our surroundings hadn't really changed.
We walked with Max from France for quite a bit of the walk and then we found our friend Brian from Brooklyn about halfway through to the end.
We remain very happy on our pilgrimage. Here we have mixed emotions between the beauty of the vast country that surrounds us, but also in the challenges we are finding with our own selves in the physical challenge.
The albergue had a really nice cubicle for each person that we got really good sleep in. I appreciated the good bathroom, good sink and mirror to clean up with. The albergue has very nice restaurants on the property so we had dinner with the same friends we started with. We had fish with their heads still attached, which Carson did not appreciate. The pilgrims menu is a special meal timed so we can have our bigger meal later in the day, when the walking is complete. Usually more expensive but includes wine and a 2-3 course meal. We ended our meal with chocolate pudding. Yummers!!! Afterwards we sat on the patio and made his friends for hours. 1 glass of vino tinto will cost you 1.20 euro. The more we had the better the feet felt.
Ear plugs to block snoring, but the best night of rest thus far.
The morning comes very early, and tomorrow we learn early isnt early enough.
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