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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    2About a dozen tiny watch dogs!Can't see them here but mountains!View from the gite

    Day 25 Montégut to Barran, 26 km

    21 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    I’m so glad English does not have accents on letters. Trying to type in French on the phone does me in!

    Another green, green day. And oh but it was hot! 27 in the afternoon. And so much asphalt! Sometimes shade. Much of the day was walking into and out of Auch, a small city with a massive cathedral. French churches are often square rather than pointy. But I did not love it inside.

    I ended up doing an extended tour of pharmacies looking for KT tape. 7 in the end. And the last one, which was truly the last one had some. That took almost an hour! And that shortened the coffee break. I didn’t leave Auch until just before 11 and it was already 22 degrees.

    Nothing too special about the rest of the way here. There were a few places where you can see the Pyrenees. But it was very hazy today and you could just make them out. One nice break at a picnic table in a forest. Another very short break on a bench with a magnificent view. I saw no one.

    The gite in Barran is old school. One room and a bathroom on the top floor of a crumbly house owned by the Marie or the parish. 4 beds and kitchen stuff altogether. Incredible view of the beautiful church from the bathroom. We are three women. One is the Brazilian/german woman and other a younger woman from Toulouse. Someone left a bottle of Pernod behind, so we had aperitifs outside before we ate.

    12€ for a bed. Man comes over after work to get the money and register the people.
    It could not be more different than the style-y Airbnb-like gite of last night.

    I think tomorrow will be about the same distance and same temperature. But there will be no pharmacy tour so I should end a bit earlier.

    I just saw a post saying that the whole chemin is now open between Oloron and Somport. Yay! (That’s where people have been having to take a bus around a damaged section of trail.)

    Young woman here is a smoker (still a lot of smoking in France, generally). I think she just went and had a cigarette hanging out the bathroom window. Old school!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    111Steeple in the distanceSteeple close up1Look at the stinger! And a rock?

    Day 27 Saint-Christaud to Auriébat 27 km

    23 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    I had thought today would be about 7 km shorter than it was. Bad math on my part! And not accounting for starting and ending gites being off the path.

    I was happy to get out of the farmhouse this morning. But I was slow. Didn’t get out until about ten minutes to eight. Overcast, windy. Definitely needed a jacket. And then miles of wet grass. At some point I forced myself to sit down (in some slightly dryer grass) and put preventive tape around my heel. It worked.

    The landscape was rolling hills around flat valley bottoms, agricultural fields on the hills and on the flats, woodlands around the edges. Yesterday there was a field where the farmers had clearly changed their minds about letting people cross it. You could see the path in between the crops - about 50 metres from one side of the field to the other. But the GR directs you to circle the whole field instead. I was obedient, but annoyed. Today the path clearly went directly across a massive field. The farmer had changed the pattern the plough made in the earth to show you where to walk. I always feel weird walking across planted or soon to be planted fields. We certainly don’t do that at home. As I got to the far side today a man drove right by me in a huge tractor and waved. Fields as far as you could see. Tractors on all of them.

    Coffee and bakery stop in Marciac. Good coffee. Really nice village. Huge square with arcades all round. I have one more night in a tiny tiny place. But I am ready to be back staying somewhere bigger! Saturday and Sunday will both be bigger.

    By mid afternoon it was broiling. 30 degrees. Thankfully there was done shade. But honestly, it’s April!

    The only person I saw on the path was an elderly woman and her dog. She used to live in Canada, she said, but can’t remember where. She was hard to understand, but I think she told me twice that her dog has a tumour and they are going to have it out down, though she didn’t use such a euphemism, she used the verb ‘to kill’. And then she was really sad. After we talked a bit she thanked me for stopping.

    I am staying at another very old school gite. Run by Anne-Marie, a woman who, I think, said she was turning 90. She does not stop moving or talking. Old farmhouse. Kind of chaotic in her part but the gite is spotless. Big huge room that looks like it might be an installation in some kind of history museum. A kitchen and smaller (warmer) bedroom at the back. I took that one. And then I cannot even begin to describe the evening I just had. Anne-Marie’s niece is here for a few days, after going to the Pyrenees to meet her boss for the summer. She is going into the mountains to work with a farmer making sheep’s cheese. I have two samples of the farmer’s cheese to take away with me tomorrow.

    But dinner! First there was an enormous amount of food. Bread and soup (of course). Then a large plate of small chopped vegetables and herbs and flowers and a devilled egg. I thought that was the end. But then a plate of sautéed vegetables, rice, and sausages. I ate a fraction of it all. Then cheese - 4 kinds. Then some kind of fruit bowl with cream and booze. I am being sent away with a small piece of a cake that takes ten days to make. I can’t tell you why because the story was complicated, I was tired, and I could not follow. When I got out my credencial to be stamped, there was comment made or question asked about a good number of them. Then we took a picture. The. I wrote in the livre d’or guestbook. All the while there is a constant stream of stories and comments about the state of all the new gites, where people just do it for the money. She was very curious about the place I stayed last night. I guess the people I met are new. She wanted to know what they are up to!

    She showed me pictures of her family’s huge house that I will walk by tomorrow. Sometimes when she was talking she moved well into what would be ‘normal’ personal space. She never sat down. It was exhausting and yet she does have a very warm and welcoming vibe to her.

    I was able to take what I’d like for breakfast (banana and yoghurt). And I am going to try (I say this every day) to leave at 7. Tomorrow is long and I’m guessing it will be hot again.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1You can't actually see the bridge from the path2

    Day 28 Auriébat to Anoye, 28 km

    24 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Last night I had to go out in the yard to get enough signal to upload the penguin. Anne-Marie, of course, was up still
    and bustling around the outdoor kitchen. Next thing I know she is trying to take a selfie of the two of us in the dark.

    This morning’s mystery: who ate the piece of it-takes-10-days-to-make-it cake that Anne-Marie gave me last night? It was wrapped up in a little bit of waxed paper in a plastic bag that also held the plastic bag with the cheese. I left them on the kitchen table before I went to bed. When I got up this morning, the bag was on the floor. I picked it up. The corner was ripped (chewed) open. The cake was gone. Paper was there. No crumbs anywhere. Cheese untouched. No mouse poo anywhere. All doors and windows closed. Could a cat get in? Wouldn’t either a cat or a mouse also have had a go at the cheese?

    Long day. But I left at 7 and the morning was fantastic. An hour and a half to a good coffee in a real cafe (not a boulangerie). A other hour to a good shady bench. And then lots of shade breaks for the rest of the day. It was 32 degrees this afternoon. How do people walk in summer??? I try not look at my little thermometer (which I love)every five minutes. I finally got out my umbrella for the sun today. It helps!

    I was crashing through spiderwebs in the woods this morning. Had no one left from Maubourguet ahead of me?

    Lesson of the day: this is France - there will be a bridge, even if the path looks like it goes straight across the river or stream…it just might be around the corner.

    I saw two deers, one of whatever the rodent in the rivers is. A garden full of wire-haired vizslas, none of whom paid the least mind to me as I passed. Lots of cows, some horses and sheep. Easy paths with a few hills. I found two shortcuts on the map that probably kept me out of the shade but saved me about two kilometres.

    Today’s gite is probably one of the nicest communal gites I’ve seen. Garden out front. Really well stocked kitchen. A little store that they come and open for a few minutes at 5:30. Single yoghurts or puddings. Canned things. Tiny jars of jam. So sweet!

    I was along for about an hour but now we are four. Two Dutch cyclists and a young German man.

    Tomorrow is short and I have booked a hotel room!!!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    Last night's gite in the morning
    Gite in the middle of nowhereFruit trees donated by friends of the cheminPart one of the lunch...cheese and walnut cannelé - usually a sweet pastry made savoury1Pack explosion

    Day 29 Anouye to Morlaás, 15 km

    25 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    A blessedly short day! Easy walking, mostly down, under a cloudy sky, not too hot! A perfectly pleasant morning. Woods, fields, rural houses. Some dogs - all very proud of themselves for barking me off. There were a few Saturday morning day hikers and dog walkers out.

    Gronze lists Morlaás as having all services. And it does, but things like the supermarket and pharmacy are more than a kilometer from the centre. A person could manage that - there and back - after a short day, but who wants to?

    I’m staying in a small hotel over top of the bar/tabac - a cafe with no food and the cigarette/lottery ticket/newspaper shop. I went to an actual restaurant for Saturday lunch. Me and all the family parties. Not for the faint of heart being a woman of a certain age eating alone in a full restaurant in France

    Afterwards I came back to my hotel room, and I have not left! Rest day! And time to sort out the logistics for the next few days. I’ve run out of ibuprofen. No pharmacies close to the route tomorrow are open on Sundays (!). And there are none at all on Monday until the end of the day. Tomorrow I go over the top of Pau - a fairly big city. It never occurred to me this would be a problem! Okay, I thought, then I’ll find a supermarket. But apparently there are no medications at all in French supermarkets-a measure to support pharmacies. And then there is the Sunday/Monday food issue. Breakfast here tomorrow. I can buy lunch at a bakery here. Then there is a bakery in Pau that is about 15 minutes off the chemin and open until 8 pm on Sundays. I will have to get Mondays breakfast and lunch there and maybe some kind of plan B for tomorrow’s dinner. There looks to be a snack bar in Lescar (where I will stay) but things are sometimes not open when they are supposed to be! And then Monday is long with no services.

    I’ve booked tomorrow in Lescar and then Monday in Oloron -Sainte-Marie. And then I’m trying to decide how the next few days go. The most likely option: Tuesday at a monastery, then a long day Wednesday to get to the last possible village/gite before the pass. And that will be the last of France for this trip!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    2A real forest1Lunch dateFind the trail markerNot the most scenic part of PauPretty things in the giteMore pretty thingsThe gite1Watercolours of pilgrims!The view from the village

    Day 30 Morlaàs to Lescar, 19 km

    26 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Another easy day under cloudy skies. First on the agenda was a visit to the boulangerie for the croissant and pain chocolate that would count as breakfast and a morning snack. And a little quiche for lunch. They always seem like a good idea but then I often, as today, find them really hard to eat while I am walking. And then of course they get squished in the pack. It ended up being tonight’s dinner. After the bakery I remembered to go to the bank machine. Outside the cities, pretty much everything is cash. The first withdrawal I made had a service charge of 6€. But since then there does not seem to have been any service charges at all. After the bank machine I went back to the hotel for coffee. And then I was out the door about 8:15.

    I’m trying to remember… definitely no ups and maybe just one small down. But it was generally flat. But nice flat - not all pavement flat. The day started in farm fields and then through a rural area with lots of houses. Good roses. And tons of rhododendrons. At one crossroads I met up with a group of day hikers waiting for some of their friends to arrive. Most of them were women, more or less my age. First question always - you are alone? There was a little bit of chatting. One of the rare times French people have wanted to speak to me in English. We were talking about aging knees, closed Sunday pharmacies, and I asked if any of them had an extra ibuprofen. Nope but they had something like Tylenol. It definitely helped!

    The chemin goes across the top of the city of Pau, through a real forest, one with an understory. Beautiful. And full of people out for their Sunday walks. After the forest the route goes right to the edge of Pau, around a race track. And after that I left the GR markings and went a few blocks south to a grocery store, which closed just as I was leaving, and then a few blocks west to a huge bakery-cafe for lunch. And after that it was a very pleasant walk along mostly green paths, past some kind of zoo, to the village of Lescar. Built on the edge of a hill with amazing views. And a very pretty cathedral.

    The gite is another really amazing municipal one. So well thought out. Everything you could need. Brushes to clean boots. Newspapers for wet boots. Drying racks. Hooks on the walls, a hair dryer, lots of books, tables inside and outside. A donativo washer and dryer. I have clean clothes.

    We are two here. Me and a man who also started in Arles. We each have our own room. Luc the volunteer, just back from a Moroccan tangine for his Sunday lunch, came and took our money and stamped our credencials. Like other hospitaliers, he looked through it to see where else I had stayed.

    Super quiet afternoon and evening here. Big decision for the next days is whether to put off going to Somport from Thursday to Friday because it looks like the weather will be a bit better. They are predicting clouds and some rain all week. If I wait until Friday I could also, booking.com says, stay in Santa Cruz de la Serros on Sunday night.

    Tomorrow is long with some hills, but they say the rain will not come until late in the day. Hope that’s right!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1
    5Not sure what these are - at an old hospital11Guest book near the chickens23

    Day 31 Lescar to Oloron, 32 km

    27 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Long, hilly, hot day, with a lot of trees. Not the most exciting walk. Highlight: I finally zipped off the legs of my pants. It was that hot. 28 degrees at some point when I looked. But really humid. Walking in hiking pants when it is hot is like wearing plastic bags.

    Most of the day was spent in the forest. Gronze is so concerned about the length of time in the forest they suggest walking with another pilgrim (easier said than done). This is a French forest, mind you. I respected by roads all over the place. But no benches!

    The hills were super steep. There was a lot of sweating. But let me just say again how great my shoes are.

    A water tap appeared miraculously, with some chickens and a picnic table, late in the afternoon.

    I’m spending the night in a private gite.

    The owner is very chatty! But it comfortable. There were four of us at dinner. Michel the man who was also in Lescar last night and two people walking the chemin de Piemont, which goes east west through the foothills. Their son lives in Montreal. So many people have family in Montreal.

    Tomorrow is shorter and ends in a monastery. The weather for later in the week changes every hour! Now it looks like Thursday might be v the best day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    Oloron-Sainte-Marie
    121Garden behind monastery1111

    Day 32 Oloron to Sarrance, 22 km

    28 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    What a great day! It started with a tiny Camino miracle. One of the reasons I have been fussing about which day to go over the mountains was because there was no room available on Saturday night in Santa Cruz de Los Serros, which is when I had originally wanted to stay there. There was a room available on Sunday. That started me thinking about changing the days. But this morning I looked online and saw that there was a room available Saturday. I took it. So decision made not by the predicted weather but by the chance of a nice bed and a reasonable number of kilometres two nights later! So I am now committed- for 4 nights at least - to the schedule I had made. Urdos tomorrow. Canfranc pueblo on Thursday. Jaca on Friday and Santa Cruz on Saturday. So I can stop obsessing about all that!

    90 percent of today was easy. All of it was gorgeous. Finally there were mountains - at first in the distance and then by the afternoon they were right there! They are big! And I am not yet in the really big ones.

    Early this morning, there were a lot of helicopters and fighter jets flying over. Apparently there are bases in Pau. The sound is so incongruous with the landscape.

    New word today: gave … a river that comes from the mountains. The walk was parallel to the gave d’Aspe. Super green, small farms, animals, and eventually, great views.

    Second miracle of the day: a picnic table when I had given up hope of finding anywhere to sit that would not land me in cow or sheep poo. I’d walked through a village fully expecting to find a bench somewhere, but there were none. They did have very nice signs pointing towards Compostela though. And then I thought there would surely be somewhere to sit on the lane that the chemin was following. There was not. Too much sun and too much animal poo. Eventually I saw a huge tree up ahead and thought, I’ll just sit under that! And then when I got closer there was a table! Amazing.

    There were a couple of very small villages with no services, except for one that had a bar that is only open on Wednesdays. The part of the route that was not easy, was a very narrow, sometimes eroding path that went up high over the absolutely speeding, terrifically noisy gave, the river coming down from the mountains. Scary. I talked out loud to myself the whole way — about 2.5 kilometers. Ugh.

    But the walk ended with some incredible roses. The roses are just overall amazing. So many of them today.

    A good part of the rest of the afternoon was trying to sort out the state of tomorrow’s walk. I will spare you all the details, but up until just a week or two ago people were being told to take the bus around a damaged part of the road. And before that people were encouraged to take the bus because part of the route goes along the shoulder of a busy road. Very busy. I also wanted to make sure that there was not more crumbly path running up high over the river. Eventually I got Michel, the other person staying here tonight, to call the person who works in the gite where I will be staying tomorrow night, a guy called Eric, who is apparently the person to ask about trail conditions in this area. He said everything between here and there is walkable. A big relief.

    I am staying tonight in a monastery. Much smaller and much older than the convent I stayed in before. I only met one monk for a few minutes; they don’t come to where the pilgrims are. The service where they do a blessing for the pilgrims (compline? 8:30 pm) was canceled. So no singing tonight. The person who meets you and shows you around is a volunteer, here for a few days. Again it’s just Michel and I, and we each have our own rooms. There were six people at dinner - Michel and me, the volunteer and his friend, and a man and woman who are just walking for a few days and have their own room. . The building is, from the outside, not spectacular. But there’s a cloister just inside the door and a huge garden at the back and a big huge main room where we had our dinner. Thw cloister is full of swallows - hirondelles, which is such a great word. Funny that the dinner was the same dinner I had at the convent, minus salad. Vegetable soup, a kind of homemade pizza, an apple compote and fresh cheese. But the thing we will all remember about tonight’s dinner is the flies. Why do Europeans not use screens? There were probably 70 flies, circling the table and the food and us. Ugh! The company was good though.

    Tomorrow is my last full day in France before I come back to fly home!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1111

    Day 33 Sarrance to Urdos, 27 km

    29 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Gronze writers call this an easy day. Good grief. But they stop before Urdos and they don’t take into account a change in the GR that adds about 2 km. I found it tough. There were some ups and downs, but the main issue is that you have to concentrate like crazy for a lot of the day. The morning started with more narrow paths with big drops down to the river. And it rained yesterday so they were a bit damp. Not too bad, but wet enough to need to pay a bit more attention. At one point there were cables to hold on to - I assume they were put there mostly to help if it were raining. Cables or not, it was better than yesterday. But still not my favourite. Then 5 or 6 easy kilometers to the village of Bedous. Home of many many raptors with V-shaped tails. tails. I’m not sure what they are. And mountains in all the directions. Some paragliders. But no place to sit down and have a coffee. So I walked to the next place, Acous, which did. And then the chemin went onto the big main road. There was a shoulder. But a European shoulder. There was room but that took a lot of attention. And it went on like that for the rest of the day. Big road, narrow and slightly scary path up high over the river. It’s tiring!

    About ten days ago it was not possible to walk the whole path I went on today. People had to take the bus because of damage done by flooding. But as of a short while ago that damage has been fixed. There were maybe 4 places where they basically made new trail — above an old one that was destroyed or where the old one had been. What a job. I also think they replaced a bridge. Very happy to have missed the bus!

    And then finally I was in Borce (end of the Gronze etape) - about an hour later than I would have thought. Very beautiful small chapel there that has been done over to tell the history of the Camino. I did not have the energy to read the panels but I did sit down there to eat my lunch. By this point it was raining.

    I had been expecting another 3 or 4 kilometers. But in the end I think it was probably 6. Another of the changes to this route involved making a foot bridge that would allow people to stay on a route away from the big road. The bridge is very cool but the new route adds at least two more kilometres. The new route is also not on Gronze or Mapy and was not part of the track I downloaded. I did find it on buen camino app. But before that there was a lot of humming and ha-ing. I knew about the bridge because I had read about it. So I was willing but not completely sure to follow the GR markings that disagreed with most of the maps. And that were also guiding the GR10! I did not want to end up on it and up high somewhere by mistake.

    The bridge is beautiful- part of a set of walkways around an old prison built high in the rock. Fort Portalet. It was about 1.5 kilometers from Urdos where I am now. Nice gite that I am sharing with three people from Czech Republic who asked me to eat the rest of their most excellent pasta lunch. The woman forages as she walks!

    Tomorrow we will all get up early and walk up to Somport. So I had better go to sleep!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    2
    There's hot water in that thermos and tea bags and coffee! Left out for pilgrims.17Fancy Spanish trail

    Day 34 Urdos to Canfranc, 28k

    30 kwietnia, Francja ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    It poured rain last night and it was still raining when all four alarms rang in our room at 6:00. So no one jumped out of bed. It was a long, long day. I’m trying to think if it might be one of the longest. I left at 7:40 and did not get here, Canfranc pueblo, until about 5:30.

    10 hours (minus breaks!), more than 1000 metres elevation gain, wet feet in the first ten minutes, having to walk through swollen streams — it was something! I had Laurie’s track from last year though I still managed to lose the markings TWICE in the first 20 minutes.

    It was good though. Clouds, rain, sun. The climbing was more gradual (mostly) than I thought it would be. Lots of nice forest track, a bit of meadow near the top.

    But the main impression of the day was water. So much water everywhere. Le Gave d’Aspe, the river I was following for the past few days, was blasting, it had turned from blue/grey to red/brown, full of soil (full of iron) from up the mountain. And the noise! I hardly ever take videos (except of the dogs) but I took about 5 or 6 videos today of these exceptionally full and fast rivers and streams. By the end of the day I really wanted not to hear water!

    Towards the end of the morning Michel caught up with me - the speedy walker who has been at the same gites the past few nights. He was dragging. And we walked the rest of the way to the pass more or less together. The pass itself is definitely not a highlight. Huge parking lot for a ski station. And then not much. And nothing that was open. Michel was going back home so had to wait there for a couple of hours for the bus. I kept on going, now on the Camino Aragones in Spain. And the difference in the quality of the path just made me laugh. Spain does not want pilgrims to die. Railings, abundant trail markers (yellow arrows), well maintained and graded footbed, clear separation between pedestrians and vehicles on the road.

    It was 9 kilometres to the first place to get coffee and a huge sandwich, Canfranc Estacion. Huge train station with an interesting history remodeled into upscale hotel. Lots of closed buildings- between seasons? Off season for winter town?

    And then it was all downhill another 4 km to Canfranc village where I am staying in a fantastic albergue. We are 6 here, 7 including Alan the volunteer hospitalero from Australia. He was expecting me because Annie told him I would be coming. That was fun.

    And then a pretty low key evening of laundry and trying to sort out tomorrow’s accommodation. It’s a holiday and a Friday and the albergue in Jaca is closed for repairs. Someone told Alan it had reopened but I see nothing anywhere to confirm that.

    Spain - tiny village, almost 10:30 at night and the sound of children outside playing!

    So that’s the end of the Chemin d’Arles!

    Argh. I tried to upload the videos (from iPhone) and it didn’t work.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1More pictures of the amazing Canfranc albergue
    This is about a meter and a half off the ground. The Camino goes under! It's the bottom of a bridge.1Stone is the building material of choice Old and new buildings.New stone housesSAN Cristobal hermitage outside Jaca

    Day 35 Canfranc to Jaca, 19 km

    1 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    What a blessedly easy day! No rush in the morning, slightly downhill almost all day. Wide, flat gravel path for hours. Quieter river! And coffee a little over halfway.

    I’ve moved out of the big grey pointy mountains into smaller green ones. They remind me of Vermont but they are a bit more pointed at the top. Nothing in particular to say except that it was a really nice walk. A bit of rain, some clouds and some sun. It’s May Day and the path is really accessible, so there were a lot of people out. For the middle section of the days walk I took the alternate route on the south side of the river. It keeps you off the main road and is basically a gravel farm/forest track. But I am guessing that the other route has an earlier possibility of coffee.

    I got to Jaca about 1:30. It’s a fair sized place with a ski town vibe around the edges — 4 story flats, guiding and gear shops and ads, ski shops. Just as I got to my hotel, a small bus sitting in front emptied out about 20 students and their grown-ups and suitcases. So I wandered around the block and came back about 10 minutes later. The lobby was still full of students. I waited another ten minutes and then gave up. The hotel
    people were not going to interrupt the process of the one desk clerk registering each student - while the other desk clerk hovered. So I dropped my bag and went for my first Spanish clara (shandy) at a very busy sidewalk terrace outside a cafeteria.

    I eventually got my room and spent a good chunk of the afternoon trying to sort out return travel logistics. Getting out of Puenta La Reina is not easy! Every option involves multiple steps.

    When I’d had enough of bus and train timetables, I walked into the centre of the town where May Day festivities were in full swing. Some streets were so crowded you could not walk through them. Bars playing very loud music. Did not feel like my scene. So I got an ice cream and made my way back to the more quiet outskirts, where I found a place that was serving food around 7:30! As I was finishing, the place was filling up with families and groups of friends in a way that is so, well, Spanish. Partly it’s that the groups are very often multi generational, that the decibel level is a bit higher than normal, that there is a lot of interaction and fun. It feels very different than what you would see in even a very crowded restaurant at home. It’s cool. I like it. But it does make eating by yourself in a restaurant feel weird. I am always the only person eating alone, which I don’t mind, but still!

    I think I found a place that will open for coffee at 7:30 though I might have liked to leave earlier. No kettle in the hotel.

    Tomorrow I go to the monasteries. For sone reason I had thought it would be a short day. I was wrong. The BBC whole thing will be 28 or 29 km. But some of those will be without a pack. I’ve booked a room in a hotel partway up the hill. I’ll go there, drop my pack, then go up to see the monasteries and then walk back down. It will be the most seeing of particular sites that I will have done for this whole trip!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1Was not expecting this!
    View leaving Jaca on the CaminoWild picnic tablesNew monastery (1700s)2First part built in the 10th century

    Day 36 Jaca to Santa Cruz, 27 km

    2 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Jaca to Santa Cruz de la Séros and then to the San Juan de la Peña monasteries

    The gods intervened this morning. One minute from my hotel was an open bar for coffee and where I could get 2 tiny sandwiches for later. And then the intervention was even more clear as I walked by the place I had been planning to go, on the other side of town, and it was closed.

    Surprising thing about Jaca that I learned after seeing a sculpture of a figure skating pair in a park. In Jaca! In the 1990s a famous Russian coach brought his skaters here to train in the summers. They were told exhibitions for the public and Jaca got a reputation as an important training center.

    Then a very easy 13 km, with one surprisingly large hill, to the turnoff to Santa Cruz. Along the way there was a big field of picnic tables where I ate my first little sandwich. Just as I stood up to go, I was passed by a long parade of what I think were antique Fiats. I also saw that someone was coming up behind me. He didn’t catch up until quite a ways later. Rueben from Germany, who just started today and who had been packed and ready to go for about a month, but then he got sick and didn’t think he’d be able to come. Three days ago he finally decided he could. He was really happy to be here. He was going to Arrés, so I won’t see him again.

    At the turn off to Santa Cruz I sat on a big rock to eat the second sandwich. A few minutes later there was a tick walking up my arm. That was the end of my break. There was a lot of checking and shaking off of clothes and I brushed off my pack. Earlier in the morning, I had been thinking that, it was so much long grass, I have been so lucky not to see any. And then here was one in a place where there was barely any grass or vegetation at all. Maybe it had travelled with me. Horrified face emoji here.

    I got to Santa Cruz before noon. My room was not quite ready, but I was allowed to leave my stuff there. I took everything out of my pack except rain gear, and then I walked up to the monasteries. 600 and something metres up and, later, 600 and something metres down. It’s a good path but it’s steep and rocky. On the way up I met 5 people who were on the Camino from Monserrat, 4 women and a man, one German, one Dutch, three Korean. A sixth person with a pack also passed me but he was going too fast to learn a thing about him. . And then in the new monastery there were another three women with packs. That’s as many pilgrims as I have seen in weeks.

    No guided visits or significant learning for me at the top. I had lunch instead! No small food in the cafeteria so it was lunch or nothing. I think that was the first hot lunch. I’ve had on this trip. And after lunch I ran into the American students from last night’s hotel. They are here because their Spanish course will be taking place on the the Camino Frances with their professor. They are from a college in Utah. Because of the colleges rules, they cannot stay in albergues. There can only be so many students per bathroom and they have to be sleeping in rooms that lock. I can’t remember what else. They have each paid $7000 to cover their costs and their tuition. Today they had a driver. They will have their luggage transported, but they will walk from Roncesvalles to Santiago. They were extremely polite. And curious. I can’t imagine taking students on a trip!

    The way down the mountain was much faster, in part because, well, down, but also because it started to rain and I wanted to make sure I got back before the dirt paths turned to mud. About 2/3 of the way down there was thunder in the distance. Yikes. I got down before it got closer. And about five minutes after I got back to the hotel there was a deluge. I enjoyed it from inside with a clara and, because I am now in Spain, a bowl of very salty nuts.

    When I went back to my very nice room, there were no lights. The storm did something. No one here could fix them. So they had to move me to a way less nice room around the back of the hotel, some kind of annex. If I had not seen the first room, and how nice it was, this room would have seemed fine, in the sense of it’s a room. But I am sad to have missed the bathtub and the very good beds.

    Tomorrow is short so I will take my time in the morning. Breakfast is not until 8:30.

    It’s pouring out now. But the morning is supposed to be dry.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1111Pass through baptismal fontA view of the PyreneesIt seems counter intuitive but this view is towards Oloron Sainte Marie

    Day 37 Santa Cruz to Arres, 16 km

    3 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    A short, easy day full of mud, the kind that sticks to your shoes and then sticks to itself and climbs up your trousers. Messy, messy, messy. I’m writing this in the bar in Arrés. It’s open! But getting served is clearly a whole other issue!

    Breakfast at Santa Cruz didn’t start until 8:30. Tostadas with tomatoes! And a big cafe con leche. And some home made cake that I have not eaten yet. It was probably 9:30 before I left. And then the three women I had seen in the restaurant yesterday were sitting outside. They are Colombians but live in France and are just going down the hill to Santa Cilia tonight ( about 7 km). They had many questions about walking in France. By the time I left them it was about 10:00. About half an hour later I crossed paths with each of three Czech people, who were on their way to the monasteries. That will be the last time I see them - unless E and I manage to go to Iceland, where the daughter lives, to see the northern lights!

    Some hills at the start and then a long way more or less parallel to the road. A little detour through Santa Cilia, not really on purpose, I just followed the arrows, which take you through the middle of the village. No store. No bar. I didn’t bother going into Puenta La Reina La Jaca because I wanted to make sure I got here in time for lunch. Another rio in spate after all of yesterday’s rain. It had not overflowed its banks but it was trying very hard. Trees sticking out where previously there must have been islands.

    Update on lunch: the hospitalero came in to drop something off and managed to get me a beer. 40 minutes in. I’ll keep you posted.

    3 km up and around a hill to Arrés changing the direction of the views for the first time in a few days. Nice quick welcome from the two volunteer hospitaleros, who, I don’t think, knew each other before. One Spanish, one Brazilian.

    They sent me off to the bar. Where eventually I did, after almost an hour, get some food and a coffee, and I ordered a sandwich for tomorrow. I’m back in the albergue, a big favourite on this route for its location, and its vibe as a ‘traditional,’ low key, simple place with good hospitality. Bed, dinner and breakfast by donation. It’s three floors. A kitchen and eating room at the top. Two dorm rooms below - one with 4 bunk beds and one with 3. So room for 14 people. (Gronze says there are 22 places!) And then the bottom floor is shower room and toilets. And they are old school too. One hook! (For dirty clothes, clean clothes, towel, glasses, everything!)

    I got here around 2 and got the last bottom bunk. 6 people before me came from Santa Cilia. Two after came from Jaca. And two more have just come in, maybe also from Jaca? It is tight!!!!!! I have not been in an albergue this full since a few nights on the Via de la plata in 2016. Yikes! Are they all going to Ruesta tomorrow too????? Lots of lessons for the pilgrim used to her own space!

    I have been hearing about two Canadians. They are here. They had also heard about me. Are you Mary Louise??? They are from Saskatoon and are the organizers of the Canadian Company of Pilgrims chapter, gave walked a lot of caminos, and volunteered at hospitaleros in Zamora, probably my favourite town (city?) in Spain. Also in residence - 3 Koreans, a German, two Italians, an Argentinian, and, on the bunk over mine, a man from France. I will be interested to see how everyone fits in the dining room!

    Before dinner a brief visit to the church. It’s all about Ste Agatha. I’ll leave you to look up the gory story of her martyrdom on your own. The church is tiny. Ornate. The most interesting thing: a kind pass through baptismal font. Priest stands outside the church proper with the unbaptized child. The mother stands inside and receives the baby, inside the church, only bc after it’s been baptized. And apparent it is the only square baptismal font in the world. Can that possibly be true?

    Dinner was good and cosy. Two tables. A good mix of English, Spanish, French, German and Korean. I think we are probably split half and half on tomorrow’s albergues. I’m going to Ruesta. It’s managed by a cooperative under the auspices of the CGT, the anarchist-leaning General Confederation of Labour. The albergue is just a part of a bigger, decades long project set up to respond to depopulation, in this case caused by the building of a reservoir. I’m interested to see it.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    1

    Day 38 Arrés to Ruesta, 29 km

    4 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    A crowded breakfast with decent coffee in the albergue this morning. I left around 7:40. The weather app said there could be rain all day. But I left in sunshine, with some dramatic clouds in the distance, and stayed dry. It did not rain until just after I arrived here around 2:45. And now the sun is out and the sky is blue!

    The walk was good. Relatively flat but not boring. A couple of nice bridges. Morning shadows for the first time in ages! Lots of birdsong. An optional big hill, which I took up to a village for an Aquarius (my first!) and a coffee. And then the last parts through a very weird landscape of abandoned roads and weird huge piles? Formations? of grey rock. Of which I seem to not have taken a photo. Lots of wildflowers. We walked on one crumbling road and alongside another one, complete with guardrails and traffic signs. And then the last two kilometres or so through a mossy forest on a soft single file track. There was a little bit of walking with some of the others, two speedy men, and a couple from Switzerland.

    We are 5 here. The albergue is maybe not officially open until next week. So the bar with the nice terrace is not open. But they brought us beers upstairs. Only three of us are sharing a room and there is lots of space.

    We had an excellent dinner - noodle and vegetable soup, spaghetti, fried milk (leche frita - sounds horrible but is very good). I did not learn that much more about Ruesta and the reservoir. But it was not the town that was flooded — the precarious and crumbling buildings are here — but their land and fields. Ruesta and four other villages. The reservoir is for irrigation and drinking water. There is an ongoing threat of the height of the dam and thus the water level in the reservoir being raised. I have been seeing signs for a few days that say: Yesa No! Yesa is the reservoir. There have been court cases that the raise-the- water side has won, but it seems like it has not all happened. Partly because there have also been landslides. One of the arguments against the higher dam is that it will destroy a big section of the Camino - European cultural heritage.

    Only a little bit of evidence of anarchist management - some symbols and slogans and a political newspaper on the desk in the office.

    Tomorrow is only 22 km. So we will have breakfast late, which always sounds like a good idea, but I am waking up at 6. It’s a long time until 7:30!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    11It says we are in Navarra

    Day 39 Ruesta to Sanguesa, 22 km

    5 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Today was cloud day. There have been a lot of those lately but this one came with blue sky. Pretty much all day. Even when it also rained a bit. I’m writing this from my bed. It’s not dark yet. We are six. Five of us repeating for two nights now, joined here by a Dutch woman, who speaks well in all the languages the rest of us have been messing up! The room smells like tiger balm!

    Juan, the Argentinian man is, I think, walking here for the first time, but everyone else has walked a lot. The French man has a YouTube channel. There is a lot of talk of where the others will go after Puenta La Reina.

    We had all been thinking there were not really any hills to speak of for the last few days to Puenta la Reina. But today the first two hours were all up. Some fantastic views over the reservoir. And then after the top, over the agricultural lands that flank the Rio Aragon and are not really circled but lined by mountains.

    Lots of puddles and mud. And poppies!!!! And birds. But it was the clouds that put on the big show.

    Nothing open the whole day. There is a bar in the village halfway along, but Monday and Tuesday are rest days. I used their tables when I stopped for a break to eat the excellent cake we were given for breakfast in Ruesta. Very plain but very good.

    All of us got to Sanguesa in time to eat a real lunch. That always feels like triumph. Ensalada mixta ( lettuce, onions, tomatoes, tuna, olives, white asparagus, and a very generous quantity of olive oil that would make the average Canadian balk) and breaded fish with a homemade salsa. And coffee. And a tall tumbler (!) of wine.

    The town was relatively busy late afternoon. Big Romanesque church that was not open. A palacio that is now a public library.

    Tomorrow the bar opens at 6:30, so we can leave earlier. We have been warned by a friend of the Dutch woman that we are in for serious mud!     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    11Obligatory muddy shoes picture.Handball court in tiny village.

    Day 40 Sanguesa to Monreal, 28 km

    6 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    There was a lot of talking before I left about the biblical 40 day walk I had planned. This might be day 40 of the blog but it’s only day 39 of walking. Almost there.

    The morning started with typical albergue shenanigans. People getting up around 5:15. Rustling packs, talking in loud whispers, turning on the lights. And yet the bar, where everyone ended up, did not open until 6:30! My tolerance is not as high as it once might have been!

    I learned last night that a friend had passed away unexpectedly yesterday. I spent a lot of thinking about Paul and his family all day.

    It was a long and not super exciting walk that started with long wet grass and wet feet. Then an easy section of agricultural fields. Another easy piece through pine forest. And then there was the mud. Not as bad as we’d been led to believe by the woman who called with a warning yesterday, but bad! And she was probably right that it went on for about 5 or 6 kilometres. One of the lovely features of the muddy section was that it was, in parts, overhung by caterpillars! Green caterpillars that seem to have decimated some of the shrubs along the side of the path. I only sunk in over the top of my shoes a couple times. But there was a lot of dancing to avoid doing so. The end of something annoying like a long stretch of mud is bliss.

    The rest of the day passed through big fields. And a lot of the walking surface was a hard concrete track. It was clean though. Like a false summit there was a false village at the end of the day. Pretty, but not our village.

    Somehow the speedy men got behind me but they caught up to me at the end of the day. We found the albergue, its door was open,,dropped our packs, and made it to the community bar next door 20 minutes before closing time - though they let us stay while they cleaned up . A clara, a plato combinado (chicken, salad, fries) and coffee. Perfect! The albergue has decent wifi so after lunch I got to come back and watch E give a public lecture over zoom. Amazing that that worked out!

    There are more or less clean shoes trying to dry all over the building. I keep thinking mine have to go on the plane on Saturday!

    The speedy men are, apparently, leaving at 5:00 tomorrow. That’s an hour and a half with the headlamp. One of them wants to catch a bus from Puenta la Reina to Pamplona around 2. And it’s 30 km. I think I have until 5 for a bus to San Sebastián, but I will also leave earlier than normal to try to give myself lots of time to sort things out. I am a bit trepidatious of the crowds on the Camino Frances, even if I’ll only be on it for a little while. Hope to stop at the church at Eunate. On my first Camino I tagged along on a side trip by taxi to see it with Laurie and Michel - who clearly knew already that there was something there to see!

    One more day. Knees are holding up, feet are still good. Hills are still hard. My pack periodically seems to gain weight. I feel so grateful to be able to do this.     Czytaj więcej

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  • mary louise adamsChemin d’Arlesmary louise adams
    2
    111113

    Day 41 Monreal to Puenta la Reina, 31 km

    7 maja, Hiszpania ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Well that was a long day! But a pretty good one for a last étape.

    It was me who was the poorly behaved pilgrim this morning. After the speedy boys got up before 5 AM and then left around 5:30, I could not get back to sleep. So I decided to get up a little before six. I tried to be very quiet. I took all my stuff downstairs, I didn’t turn on all the lights downstairs (because the whole building is open and downstairs lights can be seen upstairs), I tried to minimize this squeaking of door, hinges, etc. And then at about 6 o’clock my alarm went off. Upstairs. While I was downstairs. Eyiiii. I thought I had turned it off. I also thought it had been on vibrate. So what was with that? Anyway, the Swiss people and the Dutch woman, who were all still in bed, were very nice about it. They normally get up really early, so it was not as bad as it might have been.

    I left around 6:40. It was already light. And very chilly. About 5°. But the sky was amazing and the sun was just starting to come out. First hour or so was fantastic. Easy, easy, easy. And then for some reason, the people who designed the trail decided that we needed to go up and walk along the side of the mountain for the rest of the morning. So many ups and downs. Needless ups and downs, it seemed to me. Especially when I noticed there was a perfectly fine track all the way at the bottom - but I was too far along to join it. And then imagine how annoyed I was when I realized that the Wikiloc track that I had downloaded actually followed that track at the bottom. I had not noticed.

    You finally get to come down at Tiebas, a little under halfway. Beautiful village. Very nice community bar, where I stopped for about an hour.

    The landscape was becoming a weird mix of rural/industrial — quarries, some huge warehouses. Big construction site for a highway? Railway? It also got pretty hot. After Tiebas nothing open. Partway along , I just thought I would check the opening hours for the church.at Eunate. I had forgotten to do it before. Six weeks in Europe clearly not long enough to learn this lesson.. It was about 1:25 at the time. And Google Maps said it would take 35 minutes and that the church would close at 2:00. I went as fast as I could. And got there at about 9 minutes to 2. A triumph. The church is still as beautiful as it was when I saw it in 2000. Simple. Octagonal! They started building it in 1170. One of the things I like about it is that it is not on a hill!

    For the last few kilometers, I took a variant which avoided going up the hill into Obanos. And that put off my intersecting with the.Camino Frances for a little bit longer. The path I took went a little bit south of the normal one. It crosses a tiny wooden bridge and comes into the town right by the old albergue where I stayed before (probably the only one at that time). I remember leaving behind a paperback novel that I finished. About ten seconds after crossing the bridge I started seeing pilgrims coming on the other route.

    My main task in Puenta La Reina was to figure out where and how to get the bus and to get a stamp. The complications of this, but it all worked out in the end. I had thought I would have lunch, but the opening times of the tourist office made that a bit difficult. So I just had a quick beer and then I took the bus to.San Sebastian. Tomorrow morning at 6:25 I take a bus to Toulouse. And that’s that.

    Knees were a bit unhappy today. But generally I am still very much in one piece! I can’t say I’m not tired. Let’s just say if I did this again there would be a few more rest days!!! Thanks for reading!     Czytaj więcej

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    7 maja 2026