Things are looking up – today everything worked as it should have! The weather is still good, if a bit cooler with more cloud. The bus dropped us off at the Virgin. It was invigorating to whiz by the 12 km of walkers trudging nose to tail along the roadside (The pilgrim office told me that 300 started yesterday – probably a round number, but close. Last year apparently 9000 started in September.) Since a good number of them were what I consider to be 3 hours up the road at 8 AM, they either started at 5 or ran the first few miles. It is deadly dark until 7 AM, so who knows?
As we got higher – not finished climbing yet – the weather got cooler, with a biting wind. Finally over a pass into Spain, it turned from barren hills to warmer, treed paths. The final pass is over 1400 m, so we had put on another 300 m of climbing – to roughly the altitude of Banff from that of Toronto yesterday morning. After the final pass the trail descends everlastingly and steeply to Roncevalles. A couple of hours of that rocky downhill slope turns a whole new set of muscles to quivering jelly.
Roncevalles is a small town – to quote an old joke, you can literally see both town limits signs at the same time. Really, you can! And most of that space is taken up with a huge 13th century monastery. Part of it is now devoted to a refugio for the pilgrims’ sleeping quarters.
The town only has a permanent population of 30, but it must daily accommodate and feed most of the 300 who started that morning from St. Jean. The refugio takes most, the hotels the rest. To feed that many people, a traditional pilgrim’s meal is offered. All three hotel restaurants have it, as well as the refugio, each at different prices (and quality). The idea is a simple communal repast – as a company of pilgrims would have. We opted for the one at our hotel at 10€ each. There are large tables set for convivial dining. They served a large tureen of soup, and a bowl of pasta with sausages and tomato sauce for everyone to help themselves from, which I thought was quite enough food. Then they individually served a chicken leg with chips or fish with chips. The fish turned out to be a full trout. Nice, eh? And some yogurt for dessert. And wine. Apparently wine is traditionally part of a pilgrim menu. And why should it be otherwise?
It is so good to be in Spain where a bottle of wine comes with a 10€ meal, as opposed to France (30 km away) where it is a 10€ (or more) addition to a 15€ (or more) meal. And it is the same wine! What is this Common Market stuff all about?
You are encouraging me to look up all these places and see what they have to offer. i think you will see some great little places and scenery. Keep up the good work
I think going down would be as strenuous as the climb with the constant bracing of the legs and knees. Hope the places have a place for a hot soak in the evening.
Cool winds in Edmonton, feels like snow is not far away though the forecast does not show it.