St Jean Pied de Port

Day 3 St Jean Pied du Port

As we drove into St. Jean Pied de Port the scenery was breathtaking. We spent most of the ride getting to know Heather the woman we met online at a Santiago forum. As we pulled into the town and jumped off the bus it hit me. What the hell were we doing? Tomorrow we were going to embark on a journey of 28km with packs that already weighed a ton. Looking around at the other pilgrims I then began to compare rucksacks. Was mine too full, did I carry to much, could I possibly dump something out, and of course the all important were we completely nuts to sign up for a journey like this? A resounding Yes, Yes but too late, if you had to and no you both are not nuts, well not completely. We pulled our packs on and hiked towards the pilgrim’s office to sign in. Some say it is just in case you go missing, others say it is to keep a tab of all of those who finish the journey or at least where they leave off.

The hike up was steep through narrow cobble stone streets. We collected our passports, gave our names, addresses and next of kin (kidding) and listened to them as they said “your packs are way to full”. Well hello Mr. Obvious! Our next stop was to drop off our oversized bags at the albergue and get acquainted with our new home for the day. Then it was time to explore the beautiful town of St. Jean Pied du Port.

SJPdP is absolutely wonderful. It is a walled town surrounded by mountains. Wherever you turn you can see cobble stone streets, stone and wood work and a wonderful *church*.

We all decided to enter the church to light a candle for the journey that was to come. This was the first time I have entered a church in 15 years let alone knelt and said a prayer.

After out tour, 2 cafés we headed home to enjoy the Pilgrim meal served at our albergue. It was fantastic. We all had to tell a little bit about ourselves, where we were from and why we were doing this. The meal was great, we had some wine and local cider and then headed off to bed.

Tomorrow we climb a mountain!