RDU to SJPP

My Delta flight to Paris went well. I was the only person in hiking clothes with a large backpack, though.  And one of only a few wearing a mask.

Upon arrival at CDG in Paris, we had only about 60 minutes to get off our plane, clear immigration and customs and literally RUN to a different terminal to catch the next plane down to Biarritz in southwestern France .... we made it!


I arrived in Biarritz,  jettlagged of course,  and happy to have a cappucino.  
 
I had planned to take a shared shuttle to St Jean Pied-de-Port, (SJPP for short)
one of the traditional places to begin a Camino. But there was a 3-hour wait for the next shuttle so I opted for the bus and train instead.
 
The bus stop was just a few hundred feet from the airport terminal. I met another pilgrim,Will from New Zealand when I was buying my bus ticket. Turned out he'll be staying at the same albergue on Friday night so I'll see him again.


The bus to Bayone takes about 20 minutes and drops me right at the train station. Got my ticket and joined the line to board. Now I see pilgrims -lots of pilgrims and backpacks.
 
I gladly stow my pack and grab a seat. When I introduced my self to my seatmate, it was CHRISTINA!  She and I had 'met' on the Forum and agreed to meet up for dinner - and here she was. Camino magic

Popular posts from this blog

2019 How it began

Image
My journey to the Camino began many years ago. In the fall of 2011, we had just moved from Philadelphia to Chapel Hill.   We got settled in and then headed off for a barging trip on the Canal de Midi in the south of France. Our barging route took us past Moissac on the Canal de Garonne.   We stopped at the old church and learned that it was a pilgrim church for the Camino de Santiago.  (I now know it is a stop on the French Way- the Le Puy Camino.) We even received a credential (pilgrim passport) and had it stamped with a sello  or a stamp saying we had travelled as a pilgrim to this spot.  Along the canal route,we'd sometimes see pilgrims walking with their big backpacks.   Thus a seed was planted. Fast forward to 2019. Two friends asked me to join them in an Ollie class about the Camino de Santiago, offered by John Saxon, an inveterate pilgrim.  I went and we all were hooked.       We began planning a trip for 2020 and ...
Read more

2023 Rescheduling our Camino...to the Cotswolds

Image
As the world began to open up in 2021 and 2022, our group of 7 kept discussing  whether not to try going on the Camino.Alas, some folks had illness and injuries that make doing the Camino more daunting than before. We all agreed that being together was more important than the route and so ended up planning a 10-day walk in the Cotswolds  for the fall of 2023. We had a marvelous time on that walk which I'll write about separately.  Alas, even after this Cotswold walk, my friends were unable to join me in walking the Camino in 2024. But the Camino kept calling to me.  I loved our Cotswold trip.  I loved getting up every morning, putting on my boots and a day pack and heading out to the next town, walking with friends in the beautiful countryside.  I kept thinking, could I do this alone?   I decided yes.   For our Cotswolds trip, we had booked via Contours, a company that will arrange your lodging, luggage transport and provide maps. We qui...
Read more