I’ve found that after walking 12 to 15 miles, and after doing some clothes washing and maybe showering, there’s little time and less incentive to add to this blog!  But, there has also not been a strong enough signal to upload the blog posts.  I did lose two that I wrote – really! Today is a day off and there seems to be a good WiFi signal, so I’m taking my chances, because I do have the time.  And I do enjoy writing these.

Several of us peregrinos  (pilgrims) have agreed that if one word could describe how we feel about things now, it would be “surprise”.  We are surprised at the significant physical challenge it is.  Everyone suffers to some degree and many carry walking injuries.  Some have to stop and go home.  There has been one death.  We are also surprised at the sheer joy of this Camino, the unexpected natural beauty in the landscape and in the wildflowers alongside the trail.  We are in awe of the magnificence of the art and architecture in cathedrals and churches in big cities and in the smallest of villages.  We just didn’t expect that they could compare with Rome.  We are also very surprised and amazed at the depths that friendships can develop in mere days and weeks.

We are in Burgos now, and last night, people we’ve walked with, had breakfast and dinner with, drank with, and snored all night next to are going on different schedules and we’re needing to split up. Some we hope to see in Santiago, some, we don’t know.  We toasted these profound new friendships, hugged and said goodbye and Buen Camino.  Walking away last night, the tear wasn’t really a great surprise at all.

 “People don’t take trips, trips take people.”  John Steinbeck

After two days of delayed plane trips, customs, taxi in Paris, wonderful Parisian food, delayed train rides, and a bus trip in the mountains, I’ve arrived in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.   This is where it will begin tomorrow morning.  I’m trying out my long-dormant and poor French, but everyone is forgiving and extremely friendly.  And Basque food and local wine is great!

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner

I realized I should add a map of the Camino.   Here is the most popular route of all the pilgrimages to Santiago.  It’s called the Camino Frances and this is the route I’m planning to walk.  It begins in the small village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, located in the Basque Pyrenees of France.  Photos of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port