St Jean Pied de Port to Orisson

Beautiful walk today. We started out at 8:30, spoke with Henry and Lucille - two Canadians we met on the train, and left for Orisson.

Arrived at the Albergue de Orisson about 11:00.  We enjoyed a cafe au lait and a tea on the deck overlooking SJPP, chatting with 3 people from Scotland while we waited for taxi to take us back down to SJPP.

Sue with 5 km to go to Orisson

Marilyn heading into Orisson

View from deck

Coffee time.

Back to our hotel. Showered and washed out our hiking shirts for tomorrow.  Heading out shortly to pick up some apples for tomorrow.

Our routine - eat, walk, eat, walk, shower, laundry, eat, go to bed, get up and start over.

St Jean Pied de Port

We spent the touring St Jean, got our first stamps for our Credencials, had a nice breakfast at our hotel (Hotel Itzalpea), good salad for lunch and crepes for dinner, and made our arrangements for tomorrow.  

Tomorrow we will walk to Orisson and return to St. Jean. On Sunday we will get a ride back to Orisson and walk to Roncevalles, Spain - crossing the Pyrenees.  We wanted to stay on Orisson but the one albergue was fully booked.  

Going from St Jean to Roncevalles in one day can be done but 28 km in the mountains makes for a long day hard day, and we have plenty of walking ahead of us.

Blue shirt at breakfast 

Green shirt touring St Jean

St. Jean Pied de Port, France

1 taxi ride, 3 planes, 1 Air France Bus, 2 trains and we are in St Jean (our starting point for the Camino).  Left our house at 6:00 am Wednesday and arrived on St . Jean at 7:30 pm Thursday night.

Traveling went smooth.  Our flight from Boston to Charles de Galle Airport in  Paris was on time 7:30 am.  We picked up our checked bag and proceeded to the Air France Bus that took us to our train station, Gare Monparnasse, in Paris.  The bus ride was just over an hour long.  We waited for our 12:27 train to Bayonne.  First Class train tickets were so  worth the extra $25-$30, for a 5 hour train ride.

That's me in my only hiking shirt - green shirt in pictures - that's Sue.

Blue hiking shirt - that would be Marilyn.   

We have one hiking shirt each!

In  Bayonne we had a short 1/2 hour wait for our train to St Jean, which was a 1 hour ride.

St Jean Pied de Port:

Our Hotel

Chicago waiting

We're in Chicago waiting for our next connection and running the numbers - if we were to get bumped what would the airlines have to offer us? We have 2 opportunities to get bumped.

We would be out train tickets $140 and 1 night hotel $100.

New train tickets would be $300 for second class ( we have 1st class tickets now) plus a hotel in Paris $150 (not the worst that could happen. And catch train on Friday rather than Thursday.

If they need volunteers we are ready to negotiate!

One day till we leave.

We went for our final 6 mile training walk this morning. We're going over the 'what's in the backpack' one last time - have to lose a shirt and a pair of socks.  The latest weather conditions are looking good.  One more load of laundry to do, swiffer the floors, taxi is coming to collect us at 6:00 am, we got hair cuts last week, cut the grass last night, used up everything in the refrigerator, bills are paid.  Marilyn had an emergency root canal yesterday - better yesterday than on the plane. Lucky the dentist was able to squeeze her into the schedule.

We hope our flights are on time, especially the one to Paris.  When we get to Paris we have to catch an Air France bus to Monparnasse Train Station to catch our train to Bayonne and then a train from Bayonne to St Jean Pied de Port.

Leaving Milwaukee 8:00 am on Wednesday arriving Paris 7:30 am on Thursday and into SJPP around 7:30 pm.  We will be done in.

To be continued from France.

Bon Voyage, Adios, Buen Camino!

Walking along

I'm trying out different picture resolutions on itouch.  X-large was too big, medium a tad small, large seems to the one.

Training Walk along Lake Michigan

3 hour walk before heading over to Summerfest Grounds for Festival Mexico.

Marilyn leading the with full pack.

Sue with full backpack.

What's in Our Backpacks

We both have similar and in some instances identical gear that we have picked up over the years.  Some things from our Colorado days - well used but still functional, and some newer buys that we used in Scotland and Peru, and a few new items for this trip.  Clothing is light weight and quick drying - no cotton, no denim.  We will be wearing hiking pants and hiking shirt on flight to Paris, our spare pair of pants is in the backpack.

CLOTHING
Rain jacket (REI) and pants (LL Bean)
REI version of the Patagonia nano puff Jackets
One pair hiking pants (Mountain Hardwear) or Eddie Bauer (convertible to shorts)
One long sleeve hiking shirt
One short sleeve tech t-shirt (LL Bean)
One long sleeve polar tech long sleeve shirt with zipper (LL Bean)
Three pair smart wool hiking socks and two pair liners

GEAR ETC
Water bottle
Hiking Poles
Lafuma lightweight sleeping bag
Croc Mary Jane lightweight shoes
Sun Hat and Sunglasses
Gregory Jade 38 Backpacks
Backpackers Towel
iTouch to stay in touch via wi fi, no cell phone, no camera
International plug and charger
ipad (may not make final cut)
Lowa hiking boots
Shampoo and Laundry Sheets
Clothes line and a few Clothes pins (may not make the final cut)

Gear Check

Going through our backpacks and trying to chuck any extra items to save on weight. Getting down to essential vs unnecessary.  Those ounces become extra pounds. I'll post our final gear list later.

Holy Hill

We went for a 5 mile walk on the Ice Age Trail with our packed backpacks.  We started  out from the Holy Hill Basilica parking lot and did and out and back hike.  Finished off with a bowl of chili and a piece of pie at the Basilica Cafe.

We're Packed!

Almost done with packing.  Need to add personal items like toothbrush and paste, crocs for after walking, etc., plus a little duct tape.

My pack is at 11 pounds without personal items and water.  I so want to be in the 12-13 pound zone.  May need to take out some items of clothing.

Los Peregrinos

 

Sue - Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru


Marilyn - Machu Picchu

• Sue at Marilyn - Machu Picchu

Camino Frances - St. Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles to Pamplona . . . Santiago de Compestelo

The French Way Camino Frances

Starting in St. Pied de Port, France to Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, Santiago de Compostela. Then continuing on to Finisterre (The End Of the World),

16 Days until we leave for Spain - These boots were made for walking!

Click here for more information on our Women's Iowa Bora GTX hiking boots.