Cizur Menor to Puente La Reina

Day five of the French fry diaries... Yes, we had patatas fritas again today. Kristina and I have started a list of foods to avoid when we return home... French fries, white bread, cheese, ham, duck... We have eaten more of these foods in the last month than in the last year!

Today we walked 20.7 km. We are on a roll! We hiked the Alto de Perdón. We planned an early start to beat the heat, so started before the sun came up. It's great to start early but the trail signs are especially hard to see. After arriving in Puenta La Reina, we noticed some interesting preparations going on. It looks like heavy gates, barriers, and bars are being installed along the major street...as if some bulls will be running sometime soon? We were so excited that we might get to see another fun festival, so we began thinking about how to take a bus back for the weekend. Then later today we talked to a local shop owner and asked for details. He told us it wasn't the big bulls but the little vaca's. About 10 little cows are running this weekend. (Do little cows even have horns?) Now we will rethink whether we will come back or not.

We've been meeting lots of new people on the Camino the last few days. Our regular friends are a nice Canadian couple, a nice couple of ladies from Norway, a fun couple from Denmark, and a nice couple from England of which Kristina found a common bond with the gentleman as he's a motorcycle enthusiast and owns 9 motorcycles. Steve the Englishman has also traveled to Las Vegas and rented a "fatboy".. What the heck is a "fatboy"? It didn't matter as only Kristina and Steve knew what they were talking about. It also turns out there are a number of Americans traveling the Camino right now too. Arizona, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maine, Texas, South Dakota, and of course Iowa and California are represented (easily 8 Californians, most from southern Cali). It turns out though that most locals love the Californians. We have rock star status! We passed an old Spanish couple on the Camino today and they asked which country we came from... When we say the US... Iowa and California... California!!! WaHooooo! Hollywood!!... What is it about California? Well there are lots of interesting people on the Camino that's for sure.

That's all folks... Is anyone really reading this? Has anyone noticed yet that we have officially walked over 300 miles now?

Buen Camino



At the top of Alto de Perdón





Puente La Reina

Location:Calle Mayor,Puente la Reina,Spain

Over the mountain! St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port,France to Roncesvalles,Spain

9-21 We left before the sun came up. We hiked all the way up to Roncesvalles in only 8.5 hours.






What it looked like when we left town


The moon


Still the moon


The sun kinda peaking up







Cool pile of rocks... Tells us we are on the right path.








Almost


Only 765 Km's to go












We made it.... Happiest we were all day

Location:Calle de Nuestra Señora de Roncesvalles,Roncesvalles,Spain

On our way to Spain!!

Tomorrow we head to Roncesvalles, the first stage in our Spain book. It is 32 Km's.. Uphill! Elevation gain of about 3200 feet or so... Just a walk to Half Dome.

The book states - "Route de Napoleon: A strenuous uphill walk is rewarded with stunning views in all directions. (sparing the fog). The first part is through steeply wooded countryside.. While the uphill section will stretch the cardiovascular muscles, injury is likely towards the end when the mind and muscles will be tired, stay very focused." ..and then there are the Griffon vultures, the ones with 8 foot wing spans. Turns out the biggest concentration in the world exists here... Over 1800 pairs! They hang out waiting for anything or body to expire. Guess we're not stopping for a nap!

It also goes to say, the hospitals and health clinics are only 160 km away. They also specialize in treating foot and leg injuries sustained by... Over eager pilgrims. We are not the over eager pilgrim type so no need to worry. Hmmm...don't be over eager, don't stop too long....

Location:D301,St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port,France

Bellevue to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Another 20 some km's down! For the last three days it has rained. We stayed in a Gîte in Bellevue last night. We were excited, we had our own sink! Today we found a variant that shaved a few kilometers off of our day. We made no reservations for the evening so we were lucky enough to get a ride to the village outside of St. Jean, and we walked from there...another 4-5 Km's. We will stay here tonight and tomorrow night, and hike the mountain after that... 1500 meters in 26 kms. Hopefully it will be sunny.

Click on each photo to see a better picture...



Three days of rain so far....



An interesting (Gîte called the Alchemist)...Great food!


Yummy lentil salad...












Today's lunch.... Soup!


See those Pyrenees in the background? We are walking over those in a couple days!!





In St. Jean pied de port...

Location:Rue de Zuharpeta,St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port,France

Marsan Masion to Maslacq

Last night we stayed at a farm which specialize in foie gras... Or fatty duck liver. From there we walked 12 km to Arzacq-Arraziguet . We stopped there and decided too look ahead and find our place to stay because accommodations are few and far between. So we made many phone calls and found that all the places along the way were already booked. Finally we called a Gîte in Maslacq, and the lady told us that she was also full, but she would give us her daughters room. :-) So now we had to find a way to get there, and proceeded to call many taxis with our frenglish... We finally got a ride to this town. And our host helped us book our room for tomorrow. :-) she also has a washer and a dryer. Dinner smells delicious..

We now have clean clothes, and its the first time in three weeks that we had access to a dryer!

And dinner...it WAS delicious! We had a salad with Brie cheese wrapped in a puff pastry warm and toasted. Then we had chicken with a cream sauce, and mashed potatoes, and baked apples. Mmmm for desert we had rice pudding with Carmel. Maybe the best dinner yet... :-)






In the town of Pimbo





Duck farm.... :(. Poor ducks. (MJ found another reason for being a vegetarian!). The picture doesn't do it justice... These poor animals were clearly suffering and could barely waddle.









932 km to go woohoo

Location:Rue de la Carrère,Maslacq,France