12th April - To SJPdP

More street noises to wake us up today.  We wanted to get to the Post Office this morning so we headed downstairs for our usual breakfast – this time with pot set yoghurt as well!

We didn’t need to be at the train station until later (train departed at 1239H) so we wandered around for a little time after going to the Post Office to post some things on to Santiago de Compostela.  This wasn’t an easy thing as the staff there didn’t speak much English so Google Translate became our friend!

Back to our room to collect our bags and head across the river to the train station.  We couldn’t believe how quickly the river was flowing.  There were plenty of currents and even waves!

The train station was very easy to find and we were on the train by about 1220H and it left promptly at 1239!

The journey up to St Jean Pied de Port was very pretty.  We stopped at about 4 Basque towns along the way and the Basque colours of red, green and white were everywhere.  In fact, most houses are white with red doors, shutters etc.

The river was moving very quickly with melt water.  We passed many areas of rapids – one with a slalom course set up.

We arrived in St Jean Pied de Port and walked down to the Central Hotel after the obligatory photos at the station.  Our room wasn’t quite ready so we sat out on the balcony and, as it was quite sunny, Steve tried out his umbrella hat and we had quite a laugh about it.  I remember a lot of people wanting to buy my umbrella on the Camino last time but I don’t think that many people will want to this time as they are a bit silly – but we will make a lot of people laugh.

Once we checked in we headed up to our room overlooking the river – even now the sound of the water is lovely and will be our company for the time we are here. 

We wandered down Rue de la Citadelle and Steve ended up buying a different backpack.  I was quite concerned with this other pack as it was very heavy and that is not what you want on this route!

From there we wandered up to, and around, the Citadel before heading down again.  It had been a very warm day and we were parched so we stopped and had a drink and chatted to a lovely man, Daniel, who was with his wife Françoise and his best friend.  He has walked more than 20 Caminos in his life but now has cancer and doesn’t know what tomorrow will bring.  He has come back here as it is a bit of a happy place for him.  We wished him well and returned to our room for a bit of a rest.

We were getting hungry as it was almost 1800H and we hadn’t had anything since breakfast but it was very hard to find somewhere open for food.  We ended up next door to where I stayed last time and had some tapas which was delicious before heading back to our room for bed.