St. Jean to Roncevalles

So today our pilgrimage officially began.  We left St. Jean at 8 a.m. precisely, by way of the Spanish Gate.  As you can see from these 2 shots, it was foggy, but the kind of fog that disappears quickly once the sun really begins to shine.

And boy, did the sun shine!  It was a perfect day weather wise, and jackets soon came off.  The views and scenery as we climbed were gorgeous, and did we ever climb.  The first day of the Camino is generally regarded as one of the most difficult, because it is 22 kms uphill with grades easily reaching at least 15%, and ending with a very steep (and hard on the toes) descent of just over 5 kms. grades reaching at least 15%.  Photos just cannot capture how hard and how beautiful today's trek was, but I'll give it a try....

As you can see, there was even snow in several places along the way!  And although the steep downhill at the end was hard on the toes, the view was again amazing.

We are now in a very nice hotel attached to the abbey in Roncevalles, Spain.  This is a village of less than 100 people, but it has a huge abbey and church.  Tonight we'll eat a pilgrim's dinner, as we will most nights, since they're inexpensive.  

A lot of the fun today was just meeting people from all over the world, including Canada, Brazil, Germany, France (of course), and Holland (a man from Putten who knew my Oom Klaas Slofstra who lives there too!

All in all, today was a big test to see if we were really up to this, and we celebrated our passing grades with ice cold Heinekens at the end.

Today's official distance: 27.1 kms

Time on the road from start to finish: 8 hours

Walking days remaining: 35