We had a pleasant breakfast, and headed out. I made a brief stop in St Jean Pied du Port for Wifi and a bathroom. Unfortunately, I did not realize until 5 km past SJPP that I had forgotten to get cash! I turned around, and headed down. Luckily, before I got too far, I saw a couple leaving their house, and they gave me a ride to SJPP and back! I asked for help when I needed it, which is what I learned on my first pilgrimage. I had to walk part of it three times, but not all.
I notice a big change in the pilgrims, starting at SJPP. Before, there were relatiively few, and largely French. Now there are more pilgrims, and I hear more English and German.
The refugio of Orisson is 7 km up on the pass, at about 800 m altitude. SJPP is about 200 m. We are up here with the clouds, the cows, and the sheep. I ended up with the last bed, the upper bunk in the second sub-basement ! But I did get a shower....
We got up early on Tuesday, and were on the trail at 7:45. The route was consistently up. The weather deteriorated as we went up. There was fog , and the visibility was as low as 100 feet. It was windy, cold, and raining. We started on the road, but then turned onto a muddy trail. The pass showed us why it has a bad reputation. The trail led us to the Spanish border.
We arrived in Roncellesvalles around 1:30 PM. The refugio is a large municipal one, with our hosts from Holland. The building was recently refurbished, and nicer than the subbasement of last night. I still have an upper bunk, however. It is a big facility, with room for up to 400 pilgrims in peak season.
I wandered around the complex with Nadyia, an Italian. We fell into a Spanish language tour of the complex, including churches, treasures, art, a crypt with skulls arranged, and the tomb of King Sanchez of Navarra. Our tour guide talked very fast. Apparently the primary reason that Roncesvalles was important was not pilgrims, but the support of the king. It was never a monastery. However, there was a large hospital for pilgrms.
Roncesvalles is not much of a village, although it has two restaurants and a hotel. Breakfast will be at the next village, a few km away. I have fallen in with another group of French pilgrims. Tomorrow we will go to Zurbiri, about 22km (13.6 miles) towards Pamplona.
I had a nice dinner with the Texans, Dina and her brother and their friends. We then went to multilingual pilgrim"s mass, which made me feel very welcome.
As part of ny misadventures, I was having trouble with the Wifi in the albergue, so I went to a nearby bar. I was not watching the time, and got locked out of the albergue! Luckily the nearby hotel was not expensive, so it all worked out.
A series of misadventures, perhaps, but they will, rather mysteriously, all work out.
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