One week today, wow it seems unreal really. Our we tired, yes, hurting, yes, but still determined. It is all so different then anything I have ever experienced before. When we leave in the morning, everything is closed. It’s weird there is pilgrim time, which we have to keep and then Spain time. We have to be in by 8pm, and lights out by 10pm. Then the next day, they turn the lights on at 6am, and want you out the door by 7. If there is something going on in the town we happen to be in, like there was a wedding we walked thru, there will be fireworks and music, and they don’t even get going until late. Stores won’t be open either, no cafe lechee! Rosa, the wonder women from the fantastic place we stayed at last night, left out things for us for breakfast, it was the best place. 
Anyway, another early start, it is great watching the sun rise, but I am not a fan of walking in the dark. We left Rosa’s with another guest, Mark. We walked with him on and off all day. A really nice man whom Al enjoyed talking with. 
The scenery was beautiful as usual, more windmills and a few big cites. One smaller than the other. The first town, Viana was having a festival, we think bull running. There were stalls up and they were putting protective coverings over the windows. We could also see some guys dressed all in white with red sashes around their waists. Clues. The town was picturesque, and most of the towns have really nice churches you can go and sit in. This one did not want us to snap any pics but the Father of church came and introduced himself to us as we sat outside eating a snack. Then someone else came by and gave us some bananas. Maybe we looked a little beat up, I don’t know.
Once we left that town we could see this mammoth town in the distance, Logrono, which has a population of 145000. It took us forever walking thru there. It wasn’t easy either, we got off the path once and had to back track. There are yellow arrows and way markers they put on the sidewalks, but there’s people all over the place and you have to be constantly looking for the next one.
We were pretty tired at this point, after we left Logrona we had already walked 22 km so far. Then we had a small mountain, 540 meters. And it seemed like endless walking. I was at the end of my endurance when we Findlay reached the next town, another 12 k away. We walked 34 km today, a new record, I told Al no more record breaking. We plan an easier day for tomorrow..
Until then, 
Be well.

It is our 6th day walking, we broke yesterday’s record and walked over 29km, yup that was 29km. We started out too early, it’s was dark and we almost lost our way a few times. We walked right past the Fountain Devino. A monastery supplies wine to the fountain. So you just put your bottle under the tap and instead of water, you get wine. We missed it!! We were both looking forward to that. We made up for it later at a break and got a pitcher of sangria. What so amazes us is that you see something in the distance, then it gets closer and closer and then your right up close. We walked past a major winery, we think it was anyway. There were clues, it looked like a fort but they had kegs everywhere and it was surrounded by grape fields.
The views are just amazing with always something to look at, when not staring at your feet. 
We past a Shepard today also, he had 5 dogs with him and the way he worked them was incredible. 2 dogs in front who ran around the flock in opposite directions. Then a lead dog, just walking in front and a big dog that just walked in the middle of the whole thing. The guy was yelling at the dogs when ever the sheep started spreading out. The last dog just kept watch on his own and when one sheep was lagging he herded it back to the bunch.
We past through a pretty big town today, it had a big church which was all gilded on the inside. 
The road seemed kind of endless today, I think we are starting to hit the flat land, we still had hills but not too high and not too many.
We had thought about staying in the big town, but again it was so early, so we trudged on. We thought the next town was only 3 or 4 km according to our map, turned out to be over 6. Then again all the places were full. We were waiting at the last albergue in town when one group of 3 said they would just stay in the same room and we could then have theirs.. The only alternative was
To walk another 8km. Thank you all again for keeping us in your prayers.
The place we stayed at was a private hostel, it was fantastic! We had our own room, it had a washer we could use, which meant we didn’t have to stand over the sink and do it all ourselves. And a dryer. we have been pinning our wet stuff to our backpacks and letting the sun do the rest. The women who ran it made us all dinner, and the house was like a museum. Paintings and artwork all over the walls. There was a patio with olive and fruit trees. No lights out tonight but we are tired, its 8:30 pm. 

Today our 5th day
Al and I each wore sandals today to favor our blisters, don’t think it really worked. Now I have new blisters in different places. We Left town and made it to the post office, yippee! We had help, I actually spoke spanish and someone understood me, have no idea what he said back to me, and he ended up walking us right to the post office and leaving us there. but the Gym bag is gone!. I wanted to throw it away but it is Al’s and he wouldn’t let me. 
We ate berries along the trail again today. Yesterday I ate a ton. we actually ate breakfast today before we left because we had to hang around for the post office to open. We only carried 2 apples with us and that’s all we had until dinner. We never stopped and rested either, after awhile it was mind over body, we willed ourselves to keep going.
We past thru grape and olive fields, and some hills too. we managed to walk 23.4 km today, after adjusting for climb. We got as high as 1673 feet. We walked a remnant of a Roman road also, this road was built over 2000 years ago, incredible. Al was beside himself, I got a whole lecture about it.
We ate dinner at this little bar with some English and Australian people. We had a great time because the person who owned spoke very little English. And was constantly using his phone as an interpreter. His mom was in back cooking the food, and the whole thing, the food, the company was just great. The people from England gave us lots of tips on what to do and even how to get around there. We will probably take them up on thier advice. 
It’s lights out in a bit so I will say adios until next time,
Be well.

4th day
We left pamplona early today , dawn here comes later, around seven, so it pre-dawn. leaving the city we walked thru the campus of the university of Navarra. We meandered thru the city and when we reached the outskirts we could see in the distance, mountains with windmills on the ridge line. I knew we would be walking past those today.
then we walked onto a range of hills leading up to a very steep hill /mountain called the Hill of Forgiveness, Alto del Perdon at 2,590 feet. As we look back I can’t believe Pamplona is so small in the distance. We had already walked so far today. We are Definitely stronger today, but the back side of this hill was horrible, all boulders and loose stone, it took us a longer time going down then up. We needed to watch where we put every step. 
After we finally reached more stable ground we then walked through 2 more smaller villages. We sent my bag ahead again, and I wore the dreaded gym bag, which I hate. It only has a shoulder strap, which means I can give the other shoulder a rest, but I look like an imbecile. Al used 2 bungee cords so it wouldn’t constantly flop around, which I try to cover with my scarf, but still, it’s truly horrible. 
After 21 km we got to Obanos and picked up my back pack, and it was still early, so we kept walking because the next town was bigger and we needed to make up time. We ended up walking 25km today.
The first 2 albergues w stopped at were already full, and we are still early, only 3pm. I can’t believe how many people are walking right now, we had to walk to the edge of town to find a place, but it was nice. We had to walk across the Queens bridge then only 300 meters, all up.We actually got a private room with just 2 bunk beds, ohh la la! The bad part was the incline to get to the place. It is built on a bluff and it was truly straight up. The queens bridge has 6 arches that span the Arga. Really impressive to think they built this so long ago. The roads are like that also, made of brick or cobbled stone rubbed smooth by countless footsteps.
Anyway, we stayed put and ate dinner there, I just couldn’t bear the thought of that incline to get back to our beds. Lights out t 10pm, more later.
Until then, be well.

3 rd day walking. 
We saved half a loaf of bread for breakfast, but soon ran across this house where a women was selling coffee and snacks out of her garage. 2 cups of coffee everyone. Two!! I was so fantastic after that, the whole day went well. It was the coffee and the lady at the store/garage who educated me in coffee lingo. Not coffee americano but caffe lechee. Anyway, why am I always obsessing about coffee, hmmm don’t know, don’t care. 
Rambling, sorry, anyway after we left Zubiri, we walked thru Larrasoana, this wasn’t bad at all, some hills, but we are getting stronger. Also we sent one bag ahead, you pay 7euros and they will drive our bag to wherever you walk to next. We each still had a bag, Al had his backpack and we jammed my backpack full of heavy stuff, but I still had about 10 pounds in Al’s gym bag. I looked ridiculous. We walked to Pamplona today which ended up being 20km. not too shabby! 
Before you get into the old part of Pamplona, you walk for hours thru the city leading up to it. Lights and traffic seem weird after the trail. But then you walk up to this citadel, that’s what it seemed like, anyway you actually have to cross a drawbridge to get into the city. Then colorful houses, ribbons and streamers everywhere. And finally our hostel. We showered then did our laundry in the sink, then went exploring. Dinner was a pilgrim lunch, sandwich, fruit,juice and Al added a bottle of wine to our menu again. I insisted we share this bottle, so we invited this German man we met on the train and had a really nice conversation about Germany and the differences between us and them. 
This is so different then walking trails in the US. This is set up for walkers, all the towns expect us everyday, you meet people all along the path. If you want solitude, this wouldn’t work. Al talked to a gentleman from Australia, I talked with a women from Sweden. We have met people from all over the world. It has been great if you ignore all the sore parts.
I am including lots of pics.
More to follow, 
until then, be well.

Today, another grueling day, my shoulders hurt just touching them and I had to carry a 25 pound pack. We still have not been able to mail those things.
We also were down to our last 2 euros.
A went a whole day without coffee. I wouldn’t drink vending machine coffee, maybe i am a coffee snob, still dont think so. does anyone drink vending machine coffee? but this kinda explains the headaches I guess. But I started my day again with too little sleep and a headache. Then walked 16 miles anyway carrying that dam pack. Ok Tonya, put 25 cents in the jar for me.
This is kinda funny, a women came up in queue behind us and said, ” oh yeah this is the man I almost slept with last night” we are assigned bunks at our albergue, I was #61 and Al #62. We already set in advance I was not sleep in any top bunk. And with there being record breaking pilgrims walking right now there were almost 300 pilgrims last night. So the bunk beds, yes bunk bed set up in a big Hall two by two, so Al was next to some women, as in a double bed. I was next to some other women. They both knew each other so one recommended we switch, and they both take top bunks, thank you to who ever is praying for us! So we started out from Roncesvalles later then we wanted to. We thought it would be mostly down hill, how could we possible go up anyone than we had already, well we did, and we had some downs too, which honestly are just about as bad now. My knees are killing me! Money still a problem, shoulders and hips aching, again last in at night. Albergue full but they had 50 mattresses they could lay in the gym, we got the last two, again , thanks for those prayers. Talked on the phone, forever, but got money, got dinner, pics to follow, fell into wine induced slumber, for a few hours anyway. Here are some pics for today,

trying to catch up.

Subject: Leaving St. Jean our 1st Day walking.

Today was grueling, we left St. Jean at 7am,in the rain, pouring rain. We immediately started walking uphill, and that continued for19 kilometers, then finally, thankfully, the last 8 kilometers were mostly down hill. It was difficult. I don’t do well on hills and our backpacks are overweight at the moment. so it was slow going. We want to send things home that we got in Paris, and the extra things we packed and that we are now asking ourselves why. But we cant find a place that we can post from. That’s why we are carrying so much weight.
After we dragged our tired hurting bodies to the next albergue we checked in and bought some tickets for the evenings pilgrim meal, thankfully they excepted a credit card. which was pretty nice. When we left St. Jean, no breakfast and no place to eat along the way. We were super hungry. I did pack dried fruit and granola bars, but we never really ate the day before either. Al was starting to look at me kinda funny so I’m glad we finally got to sit down and eat a decent meal. It was tough in France, we ate out twice, and only got omelets. I know, boring, I tried to talk Al into getting escargot,which was a special that night, but no luck.
Anyway enough about that. Here’s some stats of what we did today; we walked 25.1, which adjusted for climb comes out to 32 km. the accrued ascent was 1.390m. The high point that we reached was Col de Leopeder at 1,450m which is 4,757 feet.
Here are some pics of that day.

Allen also has something to say;
Day 1:
Definitely grueling. I thought we weren’t going to make it through the day. I realized that I should have gotten more euros before we hit Spain. So far no banks no ATMs, and everyone wants cash. We are hungry, tired and basically broke. When we finally got to the end of our walk that day we stayed at this monastery that was only 12 euros for the 2 of us but that meant we couldn’t eat that night. We did check out the dinning hall which turned out to have this huge resultant connected to it that happily took a credit card. We ended up having a great pilgrims meal with people from all over the world. A pilgrims meal us usually 3 courses, there was a soup course, I think carrot, then pork cutlets and fries and it ended with yogurt. It was fantastic. Not just the food, which was good but the company as well. Then we were off to our bunks.

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