Day 2 - Roncesvalles

And just like that, we're back in Spain. What a day! Laurent, our host at Borda sent us on our way with a continental breakfast and a sandwich for the road. Hopefully, this offsets the gluttony of last night when he kept bringing out pots of food and bowls of bread. The other food available on this leg was a food truck that had snacks, including homemade sheep's cheese.

I don't remember every twist and turn of the trail today, but there was alot of uphill and then a very steep downhill in 40 mph winds. Luckily, it was a warm day so the wind felt pretty good (except when it was pushing us to the side). The view of Roncesvalles from Col de Lepoeder (4500 feet in elevation) was breathtaking. The terrain varied from asphalt to rocks to mud to six inches of decomposed leaves.

My feet are doing well so far but the hips are getting sore. We have a short day planned for tomorrow, so we'll sleep in and take our time. The only downside to doing a short day is that we may not see the friends we've made again. But I'm sure we'll make new friends.

Oh, and we walked 10+ miles, acended from 2900 feet to 4700 feet and then a steep decent to 3100 feet.

After dinner, I attended the pilgrim blessing at the church. One of the priests offered a historical tour of the church but most pilgrims either didn't hear him or had dinner reservations so there were only four of us. The finale was a tour of the crypt that is not available for tourists to see. It still has the original artwork from the 13th century.Read more