Day 8: Viana - Logroño (10 kms)

Today is a short walk as I wait for my sister who arrives tomorrow.  The day is a bit cloudy. Everyday, we need to leave the pilgrim house by 8 am. People start moving around and preparing by 6 am so there is pretty much no choice but to get up.

I have breakfast with Andrea.  Breakfast is cafe con leche and a roll with fruit bits.  We see and talk a little with Enrique, the Mexican pilgrim we both first met in Zubiri. He has a fever and has had to take a taxi to Viana.  I start walking with Andrea at 9 am in my Teva sandals while she walks in her Crocs.  We are now leaving the Navarra region and moving to La Rioja known for its red wines.

Approaching Logroño

Beautiful Spanish family in front of their colorful home

The landscape is flat with lots of vineyards. Andrea insists that we talk in German to help me improve in the language and teaches me things like Ach du scheizer or Mein schatz, wie ist deine Laune?  My German seems to be getting much better here, what with all the German pilgrims I meet and talk to on the road. So is is my conversational Spanish, which impresses my pilgrim friends.

We are in Logroño by 12 noon and sit and have a cafe con leche and eat at a cafe on the Plaza de Abastos.  Later at 2 pm, we say our goodbyes and Buen Caminos.  It starts drizzling.  Andrea and Daniela, another German pilgrim, plan to walk on to Navarrete, while I go to a pilgrim hostel, the Check-in Rioja, to stay in Logroño for a day.  Maybe we meet again on the Way.

 

Soon in Logroño

Great lunch!

Clowning around in Logroño. Hope we meet again!

It is Holy Week, and Vierne Santo or Good Friday today. I go to 6 pm mass at the Iglesia Santa Maria -- it is supposed to be a pilgrim mass but the priest says that there is not one today. He talks to me after mass (yes, in Spanish) and gives me a blessing (I think) and wishes me a Buen Camino.  There is supposed to be a procession at 7:30 pm so I walk towards the Plaza del Mercado. On the way, I see crowds outside the Iglesia de Santiago Real. I take a look and find out from a woman that there will be no procession because of the rains. One of the statues, Christ carrying his cross, is inside the church, hoisted onto the shoulders of men garbed in purple robes. They sway in rhythm to the sound of drums. A majestic sight.

At the Iglesia de Santiago Real

I then walk over to the main church, the Concatedral Santa Maria de la Magdalena. Here are even more crowds, waiting for the Maria Magdalena statue and float. I jostle among the crowds and am rewarded with a place in front. At 8:30 pm, the float emerges from the church, decorated in flowers and candlelight. Deep booming drums herald its arrival. It stops just in front of the church and for about half an hour, is serenaded by different women in their soprano voices, as about 50 men and women sway while carrying the weight of the float on their shoulders. An overwhelming and magical sight.

Float of the Maria Magdalena

Crowds in the Logroño Town Square

Afterwards, I go to the El Rey de Tortilla bar, have some tapas and 2 glasses of Vino Tinto for dinner,  then hurry back before the 10 pm pilgrim house curfew.

Day 2: Roncesvalles - Zubiri (21.8 kms)

Today I want to take it a bit easy so I join an easygoing Australian couple, Paul and Sharon, and their friend Mel. After breakfast at 7:30 am, we start walking.  We stop at a bakery along the way to buy some lunch to eat on the trail -- I get some chorizos, a baguette, some cheese, and a Roncesvalles 70% cacao chocolate bar.

The start of the trek at Roncesvalles goes through forests still covered with snow.  From there, the way goes through pine forests.  We reach a nice overlook with a view of the Navarra region. We stay here for lunch, enjoying the sun, contentedly munching on our little picnic lunch.  From here, we continue on down muddy trails through thick forests, then later come out into a cement road.  We follow the road and arrive at a little coffeeshop with a water fountain in front. We rest our feet, and I get a banana to snack on.

We continue on a gravel trail, with grassy meadows stretching out on both sides.  My feet are hurting as we arrive in Zubiri around 2:30 pm.  It looks like I have not completely broken in my boots for the hike.  I decide to stay here.  We say our goodbyes and the others continue on to near Pamplona as Mel wants to go to a special mass there.

I check in at a private pilgrim house, the El Palo de Avellana.  It is very nice but a bit expensive at 15 euros.  I am the first one in at the 10-bed dorm room.  I shower, stretch out and relax,  do a bit of laundry, then tend to my hurting feet and legs with a balm.  They have wifi and i am able to check in and blog a bit.

The rest of the day, I chill out, have dinner at Gao Txoxi, one of the 2 restaurants there, where I chat with one of the pilgrims, Enrique, a Mexican who had walked from France for 14 days already.  I get a taste of my first paella in Spain. I even have a nice espresso.  Nice day!

Right outside the Roncesvalles albergue

Roncesvalles

With Sharon and Mel, starting out from Roncesvalles

Snowfields

Trail signs in the snow

Snowmelt

Church in Burguete/Aurritz

Navarra overlook

18 more kms to Zubiri

Fuente Camino de Santiago, drinking water refill station

Zubiri

Day 0: St Jean Pied de Port

Today is a full day of travel.  I wake up at 6 am and after 11 and a half hours and 3 train changes, I arrive at 7:40 pm in St Jean Pied de Port on the last local train from Bayonne.

In the train are fellow pilgrims, as I can deduce from their gear, and a big group of young boys and girls aged 10 to 12 years from Pamplona.  I talk a bit with them. They had stayed in Bayonne for 3 days to learn the Basque language, called Euskera. They say it is an old language from their province of Navarra.

On the train from Bayonne to St Jean --
a boisterous group of young boys from Pamplona

From the train station I follow a person who seems to know where he's going and I am right. He leads me directly to the Pilgrim Office and I am second in line to get a pilgrim passport for 2 euros and a booking for a bed at the municipal hostel, for 8 euros.

At the Pilgrim Office, they tell us pilgrims that the Route Napoleon leading over the Pyrenees is closed as there is too much snow.  The man at the office indicates about thigh-high and mentions something about 4 South Korean pilgrims being rescued and airlifted from there. He then points out in a map the alternate route we must follow going through Valcarlos.  I am a bit disappointed as I was looking forward to this scenic route crossing, but I know they know what they're saying.

I run down to the hostel, leave my pack on my assigned bed and run out again to grab a bite to eat as it is getting late. I have my first pilgrim meal of the trip for 11 euros, after which I go directly back to the hostel as it locks down at 10 pm. I shower then climb up to my top bunk in a room with about 25 other people.

My first pilgrim meal -- this is just the 1st Plate (of 2)

I could hardly sleep even with the recommended ear plugs on.  A cacophony of night sounds, snores, breathing, movements ensues-- to which I probably added my own.  I am guessing I need to get used to this.  My stomach is too full from my late dinner and my body tries mightily to digest all that food.  Plus it gets too warm in the room and soon I am sweating in my sleeping bag and thermals.

St. Jean-de-Port at night

St. Jean-Pied-de-Port Arch

St. Jean-Pied-de-Port bridge