Ok...the computer here is free! So..Arrival in Europe!

Quick...while everyone else is away at the various pilgrims dinners!  God, where the heck to begin.

The first train along the way - Hamilton, NJ!  Do I look nervous?

To start...the flight into Madrid was perfect, but I have to say by then I hardly knew what day it was or what time it was.  The aeroport is soo huge and soooo confusing!  It truly has an odd lay out.  But, after a few tries I found a very friendly young lady behind the Renfe counter. Renfe is the Spanish national train service.  They are fabulous.  Thru her I finally finished booking my train ride north to the beginning of my "Camino Experience".

Choir Practice in Madrid, Barajas district!

I´d originally planned go north via Pamplona, and then to Roncesvalles on the French-Spanish border.  However each direction and method I tried seemed to fall flat or get too expensive.  Finally a little more research, I found that by going to yet another city on the self same border, just further west I could make the neccessary connections.  Hendaya is right by the ocean and is a small working class city, as near as I could determine in the hour and a half that I was there.  In Hendaya, I and the other perigrinas and pergrinos (pilgrims) grabbed the local connection north again on the French rail system, thru Biaritz onto Bayone. 

Just a tiny piece of Bayonne...now I have to revisit!!

Bayone was interesting...again in the hour and a half that I had.  Beautiful cedar trees, lovely gardens and an incredibly old synagogue.  Again...when I can determine how...lots of pictures.  Bayone is also the starting point for still smaller rail line which runs up into the Pyrenees, taking us all east again to St. Jean Pied du Port. I have to say, train travel is Europe is really special.  The trains are on time and usually amazingly comfortable and clean.  The small train to SJPP was no exception.

Be prepared...to see this ensemble a lot!

French Style...even with an ugly uniform.

My only "complaint" would be that as we rode slowly north and then east, the mountains began to loom larger and larger.  I know all of us were getting a bit anxious looking at the size of the mountains as well as their breadth.  The last time I saw these mountains I was 13 years old sitting in the back of a VW next to my brother Marty, while Mom drove us home from Lisbon to Nurnberg.

Arriving in SJPP, I went directly to my Alburge (pilgrim hostel/hotel).  Danielle greeted me and after showing where to stash my stuff, we went straight to dinner.  I know she could sense my nerves as she brought out a lovely glass of port and sat with me as I ate a terrific dinner.  Dinner and breakfast were included with my reservation, and worth every euro.  For dinner, potato soup with fresh crust bread, lentils with sausage and for dessert, hazelnut flan with a hazelnut halfmoon cookie...oh and wine!  Fabulous.

Near the end of my dinner came another woman.  Danielle ever the good hospitellero (pilgrim hosts) made sure we were introduced and made inquiries as to who spoke what.  Rita answered in English as the question was posed in English, but then said her German was better.  turns out she´d actually thought I was a German too when she first saw me, and was acutally surprised, even after hearing my German, that I wasn´t!  Turns out we got along like a house on fire, 90% of the conversation going in German...as it´s continuing till today.

I know I told you all at home in an email how I ran into Rita as I left SJPP the following morning (after a dream/nightmare filled night in which the mountains kept getting bigger)  Rita and I got the loveliest blessing by a local priest standing outside the church right by the Pilgrims Gate.  Each of us glanced sideways and had to laugh as we were both literally moved to tears.  So out of the town, tears of delight and joy streaming down both our faces...on and up into the mountains.