Downshift Musings

Last night Pamplona had a festival. The streets were crowded with vendors, musicians and families. Rich and I walked around the old city and caught part of a symphony and choir concert in the large square. Everyone was dressed in jackets and scarves as the temperature was 14 c.

This morning’s walk was another damp one with a steady drizzle and muddy trails. It was a long uphill followed by a long down hill. The rain cleared out and we got some sun this afternoon. The countryside transitioned from plowed under fields or drying fields of sunflowers to vinyards and olive groves. Met 2 pilgrims from Florida who are very concerned about the hurricane and their families.

I have blisters on top of blisters on my pinkie toe. Really gross and I hope I can get it healed.

It’s really kind of neat on the open stretches of trail to look ahead and see the parade of pilgrims ahead and behind. There are 300! on the same stage as us. It makes a very colorful parade when all the differently hued rain ponchos are out.

We took a detour with an extra 3 km to visit an ancient church used by the Templars.

No Sign of the Bulls

We left Zubiri this morning at 7 am in a light rain, headed to Pamplona. It was an “easy day” as far as the Camino goes, not too many ascents or descents and only 20.9 km.

We intended to walk 5 km and then get breakfast at a cafe in the next village, but it turns out the shop was closed because everyone was sleeping off a town festival that happened the night before. So, we walked on another 5 km to a really nice riverside pilgrim cafe where quite a number of fellow pilgrims were having coffee too.

Today’s walk followed the river Arga for the most part. It wasn’t as scenic, but Pamplona sure seems to be. We are staying inside the walled city in another albergue. By chance today we ended up walking with Annli from Denmark who we met in the final (awful) descent to Roncesvalles the first day. We ended up in the same dormitory this afternoon and shared a meal with her.

We finally have some halfway decent wi-if so I’ve been catching up electronically. Rich is napping. Our evening plans are exploring Pamplona, maybe a little pizza, and laundry.

To the Pain

Yesterday was about conquering the mountain… today about enduring the pain.

We almost didn’t get a bed last night because there are a lot of pilgrims walking with us and the hostels fill up. Consequently we left Roncesvalles this morning at 7 am., before the sun came up, walking by the lights of our headlamps to make sure we would get to Zubiri early. It was very cold at the start and we were all bundled up in jackets. We walked 24 km today, up and down, alternating between woodlands, pastures, and small towns.

The towns were cute, with white-washed buildings with red tile roofs, dark wooden shutters and window boxes of cascading red begonias. The trail has lots of delicious wild blackberries growing along side it, which a lot of the pilgrims seem to be enjoying.

The pain of walking kept increasing as the day wore on. The down hills are the worst because of knee pain. Thank goodness we packed the trekking poles at the last minute because I’m not sure I could do this camino without them. This afternoon after beer/wine at a bar we’ve been cleaning up and hopefully now we can just chill out until dinner. We are all so sore that one of the other pilgrims described the way we walk as the “camino shuffle”.

We learned a fun fact last night from a Spanish pilgrim who dined at our table. He says the country that has the most pilgrims on the camino these days is South Korea!

Note: The wifi at the albergues has been really slow so I haven’t been able to upload photos 🙁

I tried to imagine the worst
…

and today’s walk was far more difficult than I ever thought it could be! 58,910 steps, 23.7 miles (horizontal), 4,933 calories burned, 525 staircases climbed.

When locals said the trail was steep I thought the trail would be steep, not slide-down-on-your-butt STEEP. But the views as we crossed the Pyrenees were gorgeous and we met many pilgrims, a number from California, Canada, Brazil (on bikes), Australia, Germany and Denmark.

The albergue hostel is “interesting”. Mixed sex ( around 36) sharing bunk beds in a building with 2 toilets and 2 showers. Getting laundry dry has been a problem and we’ll see about the snoring tonight.

We’ve arrived in St. Jean Pied de Port

Rich and I spent the afternoon registering as pilgrims and exploring this picturesque Basque town in Southern France. Tonight we’re splurging on an Air BnB and one of our few chances for a comfy, private bed.

We have a tough day tomorrow, as we go over the Pyrenees and ascend 1,389m on the Route de Napoleon to Roncesvalles, Spain…and jet lag has hit… so to bed we go.

Ready To Be A Pilgrim

Our pilgrim passports have arrived from americanpilgrims.org. We’re officially pilgrims. We can now gather our pilgrim stamps in the credencial, twice daily, and with God’s help, earn our pilgrim certificate by making it to Santiago de Compostela.

With my packing pretty well wrapped up (See Preparing for our Pilgrimage) I’ve been doing some more practice walking, which has taught me a thing or two.

I’ve learned that 10 miles is more than twice as hard as 5 miles. I’ve learned that I’ll be miserable with  a ~20lb pack. I’ve also learned that it is very unwise to go walking when the temperature is 99F. I’ve earned one blister on my right pinkie toe. And I remain conflicted about whether to take walking poles. I feel like they help me keep going when I might otherwise really slow down, but they also change my gait (hence the blister) and raise my heart rate.

On another note, this week I will say goodbye to each of my children as they head off to college. Both kids out of the nest off to their own adventures. Buen Camino kiddos!