September 2
Day 0 - St. Jean Pied du Port
Today we arrived at Bayonne at 9 in the morning after a restless night (for the both of us) on the night train from Paris (we had arrived in Paris via the high speed TGV from Metz in Lorraine after our visit with Sarah and family). We were pretty anxious/excited to get going, but the logistics of getting to town and getting our bearings straight took a bit of time. We didn't arrive until about 12:20 and then after we'd had some lunch (we were starving!), purchased a hat for Jamie, and visited the pilgrims office we conceded that it would be a pretty late start for the 15.6 mile journey to the next lodging opportunity given that there is about a mile of climbing involved and we aren't exactly at trail fitness at this point.
Once we came to that conclusion we settled into the nice municipal hostel in town (called Auburgues on the trail). It holds quite a few people it seems, but is extremely clean given the amount of traffic (tens of thousands of people do this pilgrimage per year, quite a bump up from our AT experiences). At 8 euro a night, which includes breakfast, I didn't expect the cleanliness or the hot shower!
After our anxiety of losing a day subsided we really just took advantage of the day and even treated ourselves to our first "petite train" experience (we just like the name, but it was very nice). It took us all along the village and up to the citadel in the middle of the walled town. The structures are pretty remarkable and we also enjoyed walking around the wall at one point. One of the bridges is a Unesco world heritage site (shannon graced it with her ukulele this evening), and the topography of the town and the surrounding hills make it a really breathtakingly cute place.
We ended up finding a hat for Shannon as well before the night was out and proceeded to stock up on some groceries for tomorrow's journey. Tomorrow will actually be the most arduous day, as most of the trip will be flat (especially compared to the AT's dynamic topography). But given the mountainous nature of tomorrow there isn't any place to find provisions along the way so we've packed ourselves a nice lunch (complete with fresh vegetables, another rarity we aren't used to while hiking!).
Our spirits are quite high after our lovely day in town and we were glad we chose this as the starting place of our journey, even though we won't be able to walk straight through to the end. Given our time frame we will have to skip a rather large portion at some point - we will figure it out as we go, but we think perhaps the middle third of this particular route we may not do.
Bon nuit! Tomorrow Spain awaits!
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