We're on our way!!

Hello from Roncesvalles in Spain! After a 25 hour journey to St. Jean which included two flights, two trains and finally a two hour harrowing bus ride across the border, we arrived in the evening on Friday. It took some wandering to find our B and B and we were ready for a hot shower, a beautiful meal and bed.

Spent the day on Saturday exploring St. Jean. We found the pilgrim office and bought our French credentials, had lunch in a sidewalk cafe and then dinner at the auberge where we stayed for the night, Esprit du Chemin, run by Dutch pilgrims. We slept on bunks with eight people in our room. Nerves and excitement ran high and we couldn't sleep at all. 

6:30 am came early! After a great breakfast and a lot of fumbling with our gear, we set off . We made it down the hill to the gate of the old city and then the rains came! We stopped under the gate and donned jackets, pack covers and rain pants. It was like climbing into our own personal sauna.

The 8k walk that day was steep, wet, and difficult. I won't lie when I say that I questioned 

why in the world we were doing this. We arrived at Orisson in the rain and because we had packed a lunch and Orisson has a restaurant, we ate our sandwiches outside, sitting on a cold wet wall before we went in.
We were lucky enough to get a private room, which we later deemed "the woodshed", as it was out in the back and unheated and damp. It did have a double bed, though, and warmed up nicely after a while. At dinner, we met and chatted with a nice bunch of people, including a girl from Canada, a guy from Australia and a British guy. We had a pleasant evening of laughter and good food before heading to bed early.