500+ Miles Across Spain

For our last month in Europe, we decided to do something crazy.
What does crazy mean to us?
Something to do with getting up in the morning, walking all day long 'till your
feet feel numb, eating tons of pasta for dinner because you're starving,
going to bed exhausted, and waking up and doing it all again . . . for 32 days straight.

What is it? The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage starting at the
French/Spanish border and stretching all the way across northern Spain,
through little villages, big cities, and finally to the sea.

On day 1, we crossed from France into Spain over the Pyrenees mountains.
The day was so foggy that we really felt like we were up there in the clouds.
The fog added a sense of mystery to a journey that was already completely unknown to us.

The sign pointing toward the next town, "Roncesvalles", was barely legible through the haze.
We could hear people talking nearby without actually being able to see who was there.

Finally, after climbing upward all day long, we started the decent into town.
What would we find? How many people were walking today? Where ARE we?

The end of the first day brought hot showers, various introductions, and a nice top bunk bed.
The refuge at Roncesvalles held over 100 people in this huge hall lined with beds.

We arrived early, about 1:45PM. Since we brought no books, had sworn off the internet, and it was raining out, there was nothing to do but relax, too bad. Eventually, we got used to the feeling of having nothing at all to do, and it ended up being completely wonderful.

The following images cover our journey for roughly the first 1/2, from the days after
Roncesvalles, through the foothills of the Pyrenees, past the major city of Pamplona, through endless vinyards and changes in the color of the earth, and up to Burgos, another big city.

Stay tuned for the Camino de Santiago Part II . . . .