A thunderous boom woke us up around 5:00am. A dry lightning storm hit the city, flashing and rumbling often but no rain. We fell back asleep until our 7:00am alarm to catch our train on time. We packed everything up and left our flat, tossing our garbage and recycling on the way out. When we reached the metro station two blocks away I remembered I set down my raspberry tart to sort the recycling and forgot to pick it back up!! So Mat sat with our stuff as I ran back to get it. Luckily we had scheduled ourselves plenty of extra time to get to the train station.
We reached the station, waited for the gates to be assigned, and boarded our train with a seat on the upper deck. The trip to Bayonne took just under four hours. The views were filled with mustard fields, farms, and villages; very pleasant to watch while we ate our quiches and I enjoyed my little birthday raspberry tart. In Bayonne, we used the electronic kiosk to buy our ticket to St. Jean Pied de Port, a direct 1hr 18min ride from Bayonne. We later found the train wasn't running for some reason and they had a bus to take people, pretty much all hikers, up to SJPdP. It was quite a windy road but I scored seats right near the front so we could look out the windshield and not get car sick. We were thinking about how skilled a driver must be to drive a large tour bus in Europe, and this woman was amazing. There were multiple spots where we thought she would hit something or curb a tire or have to back up but it did not happen once!
The bus reached SJPdP just before 5:00pm. The entire bus unloaded, hikers with backpacks making their way to the Pilgrim's office, so we went straight to the hostel we reserved and checked in. After organizing our packs for walking, we set out to see the town and find the pilgrims office. I often wondered why St. Jean Pied de Port was the unofficial start of the Camino Frances since it is rather difficult to get to and is located in France instead of Spain. Now I know why! Such a charming, beautiful medieval town, complete with multiple bridges over a river, winding cobblestone streets lined with cute shops and restaurants, beautiful flowers, and a fortified citadel at the top of the hill overlooking the surrounding valley. Very idyllic!
There are a couple of outdoor gear shops in town, not like REI but little mom-and-pop types that carry practically anything a pilgrim needs so we stopped to poke around. Next, we found the Pilgrims Office, obtained our free passport with its first stamp, then donated some coins to pick out a shell from the hundreds of different colors and patterns they had ready to be attached to your pack. When first planning this trip, I considered buying a shell with the little cross painted on it but the pilgrims office at lots of them, each one unique, for whatever amount you want to donate. They don't have a cross painted on them but I like them for their individuality and uniqueness.
We were hungry so we stopped at Hurrup eta Klik, a restaurant Mat spied with pitchers of Basque cider and delicious desserts on their menu; a perfect spot for my birthday dinner! Mat ordered the Basque chicken - a quarter chicken in a tomato sauce - and I selected the steak. For dessert we ordered creme brulee and Basque cake, a vanilla cake with an almond creme in the middle. Mat really liked the Basque cake. A woman in her 60's sat down at the table next to us; we recognized her from the bus ride so we struck up a conversation with her. Leah is a British woman living in Australia and is hiking the Camino solo. We enjoyed chatting with her.
After dinner, we walked around the city on the old battlements and checked out the citadel. A dark cloud was moving in from the west so we made our way back to our hostel. We reached the side gate to the hostal and I pulled to open it...nothing. We had heard some of the pilgrims' hostels lock their doors after a certain time but it was only 8:30pm. Mat went to try and immediately pushed it open. I reminded him he's married to a natural blond. As soon as we reached our room the rain started falling hard. We even got a few lightening flashes and thunder rumbles as we nodded off! All the hostels/hotels/alberques in town have a required 8:00am check out time so we went to bed rather early
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