Although we enjoyed Paris we were excited to be headed in the direction of our true purpose for this trip - The Camino!
I remembered this morning that I had not yet set up my phone for international connectivity. So I spent some frantic minutes while I still had WIFI to get that set up. We had arranged the night before for a taxi to take us to the train station, arriving about an hour early for the 10:28 train to Bayonne. We discovered our first fellow peregrinos - two sisters and a sister-in-law (Carol, Valerie and Sharon) from California. They were close to our age and they too are just going to Orisson the first day. Us old people have to ease into these kinds of things!! Kind of like walking slowly when you first get up out of a chair!! At any rate, it was fun to meet the first of what we hope to be many individuals sharing this pilgrimage together. With a little guidance we found our way to the correct platform and were on our way.
The trip was about 5 hours through the French countryside. I kept looking for grape vines but did not really see any which I found surprising. I did see lots of mistletoe in the trees and fields of yellow. Since I was very tired, I thought I would sleep most of the way but surprisingly only dozed for a bit.
Our original plan was to stay in Bayonne and continue on to St. Jean Pied de Port on Tuesday but we opted instead to continue on via the 6:00 bus along with many other pilgrims. On our arrival around 7:30, we made quite a spectacle of ourselves as we dragged our suitcases through the cobbled streets of St. Jean, definitely not in line with the Camino philosophy to walk far, carry less.
Fortunately, we were relieved of this debacle quickly as we obtained the last room in the auberge right next to the main Pilgrim office. Having deposited our embarrassing items, we got in line for the office to open. Excitement prevailed. We struck up a conversation with a young girl, Ye Ling, from the Hunan province of China. She spoke excellent English which she said she had picked up from her travels. She had been traveling across Europe and shared our sentiment about not enjoying that part of the trip as much as she would have if the true purpose of her travels was to do the Camino. She was so sweet and gave us each a gift - neat bracelet she had made. Such a great start to the community of humanity that is the Camino!
To get a Compostela, the certificate of completion of the Camino, you have to walk a minimum of 100 miles of the path. To prove you actually did walk, you get your Credencia stamped at each stop you make along the way. The first stamp is obtained at the start of your journey, in our case at the Camino office in St. Jean Pied de Port. Jean, the staff person to help English speaking people get their first stamp, was fantastic! He arranged a room reservation for us in Orisson as well as for our bags to be transported to Santiago for pickup when we arrive. He also gave us each a scallop shell, the symbol of the Camino, to hang on our backpacks. We were ready to start our Camino!
I am really not sure how to describe our auberge hostess. A sprig of a French woman, she spoke virtually no English, although she did know one important one for a businessowner - money. She found such humorous ways to communicate, I found myself laughing most of the time. We did manage to understand that we had to be back to our room, showered and lights out by 10:00 and to be down for breakfast at 7:00 in the morning.
Our room was on the third floor and we had to go through a fellow traveler's room to get to it. I'm sure he loved that! Plus the door had an extremely noisy handle just to make sure he knew we were there! Maybe that was why the room cost us only 25 euros. Sure hope the guy whose room we walked through was even less.
By the time we were done at the Camino office, it was 9:00 and we had not yet eaten. Quite a race to find something we could eat quickly to meet our 10:00 deadline. Found a place close by that offered a pilgrim meal which we devoured, making it back to our room by 9:30 - barely time for a quick shower. We still had to do some repacking - moving items from our suitcases to our backpacks and reviewing our packpacks one last time for items we could dispense of. In going through my backpack, I could not find my rock or the pewter heart I brought with. Very disappointed. Hit the pillow, which was as long as the bed was wide, by 11:00 and fell asleep dreaming about our journey.
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