Camino Start at St Jean Pied-de-Port

I found a really cheap American Airlines miles ticket for San Francisco to Madrid round trip and it came with its minor inconveniences. Instead of the usual 12 hour direct flight, it took me via Phoenix and Charlotte to Madrid thereby using up 25 hours.

During the last 500 miles of the journey, the airplane map presciently kept showing Santiago de Compostela every minute.

The customs line for non-Europeans was separate and when I was called, the officer completed stamping my passport in less than 2 seconds, my fastest encounter with border control.

I had purchased the train fare to go to the closest place to St Jean and it was Pampalona. To get to Pampalona, first I had to take a train till Zaragoza and then another to Pampalona.

The train to Zaragoza left from the Atocha station which was about 15 miles from the airport. I was going to get an Uber for $30 but the tourist information person said the fare to Atocha was probably included and i could take the Renfe train from station right underneath the airport. That information turned out to be correct and I found the train waiting.

The train was quite clean and in about a half hour ride with 5 stops, it reached the Atocha station. I now had just over 2 hours before boarding the Zarazoga train. There were many eateries at the train station and I whiled away my time eating after unsuccessfully trying to change my train ticket to an earlier departure.

The Zaragoza train was run by Iryo company. It was modern, clean, fast at 300km/hr and punctual. In an hour, I was at Zaragoza. The jet lag had taken a hold of me and it was lucky I was heard the watch alarm to wake up to disembark.

The Pampalona train was older but in a couple of hours I was at Pampalona. I even had an hour and half of sleep.

I couldn't find a quick option to get to St. Jean Pied de port as it was 92km away in France and a couple of taxi drivers asked for the same $135 fare. I relented and started the last leg of the journey to the starting point.

I passed through beautiful spring vistas in Spain, cherry blossoms and mountain passes in the Spain-France border. I could see many pilgrims on the mountain passes in the cold, windy weather. it looked daunting.

St Jean looked like a very cute town. It had many tourist and pilgrim friendly places, bakeries, cafes, hostels.

The old ramparts were visible in parts of the town.

The Nive river went through the potential and it had plenty of water.

First things first, I went to the pilgrim reigistration center And the friendly volunteers there gave me all the information to commence the hike.

The pilgrim center was in a cute old looking building with big wooden doors.

Besides the maps, road closures and info about slippery-muddy roads to avoid, I also got the credential and the first stamp on it.

My backpack of 11.5kilos/24 pounds without any water was too heavy according to the volunteers. They advised shipping or donating items and bring it down to not more than 7kg.

There was a company nearby that would ship and hold things for you at Santiago de Compostela for $80. I removed the sleeping bag, sleeping pad, a long sleeved shirt, the Levi's jeans, belt, water sandals, extra face towel, pair of shorts all weighing 3.5kg/8 pounds.

Having finished the preliminaries, I was now free to explore the town. I had not planned any of this trip in any detail and had relied on serendipity to guide me throughout.

When I looked for a place to stay for the night, I discovered the free app called Buen Camino and it had a good list of hostels with their emails. I emailed all of them. I got three responses and the hostel I chose charged €22 for the night. I decided to go there, but it opened in an hour.

As I was walking around, I saw a fellow American pilgrim and he had stayed the prior night at Albergue Beilari, and highly recommended it. The owner Joseph had a 14 bed hostel with dinner and breakfast included for €43.

I also met a retired US Marine Corps colonel from Washington DC, Larry, who was going to do the same route as me but delayed by one day.

The next three hours before dinner was going to be served, I explored the town and it's beautiful verdant scenes, old buildings and mountains.

Joseph was very calm person, and was very efficient. His hostel had some clear rules like strictly enforced quiet time from 10 PM to 6:45 AM. Shoes and backpacks were supposed to be left in the outside verandah area to avoid bedbugs contamination. The rooms had four bunkbeds, and he provided a blanket, a pillow, a pillowcase, a mattress with a fresh disposable cover. There was no Wi-Fi, but there were many electrical outlets.

With 13 Pilgrims assembled at the dinner table awaiting being served at 7:30PM, Joseph had a few quick games for introduction and purpose for the pilgrimage. Of the pilgrims, there were three Americans, three Dutch, two South Koreans, a French, two Irish, one German and a British person.

The dinner was hearty with servings of vegetable soup, red, cabbage, salad, beets and cauliflower dish, freshly baked bread, pasta with sauce, chocolate pudding.

After the dinner, I promptly went to sleep, awaiting the early morning breakfast and the start of the pilgrimage.