We said good-by to Biarritz and the Hotel St James this morning at 10:15 and took a taxi back to the Bayonne Gare in order to catch the local train to SJPDP.
While waiting for our train, we chatted with Bobby from Indiana. It was his first Camino and with only 2 weeks off from work (Fed Ex) he planned to walk a far as he could before returning home. Chris, from Arizona and a retired nurse was also on his first Camino and had allocated a similar time period, but he planned walk from SJPDP but skipping the middle part of the Camino to get to Sarria and complete the final 100km to Santiago to earn his compostela. When both men found out this was not our first Camino, they had many questions and we were delighted to try and answer them and share some of our experiences.
Our two hour wait for the train to arrive and the one hour plus trip to SJPDP passed remarkably fast.
We had an easy 8 minute walk from the train station to our hotel and were given immediate access to our room. It was 2:15 pm so we dropped our packs in the room and walked to a restaurant next door that was miraculously still serving from their full menu. We ordered our meal for the day and relaxed for some delicious local offerings.
After lunch, we walked to the Pilgrim office to get our credentials completed and stamped, verifying SJPDP as our start point and tomorrow as our official starting date.
The rest of the afternoon was spent getting showers, washing travel clothes and making logistical arrangements for the next two days, using SJPDP as our base.
Tomorrow morning we finally begin our 5th walk across Spain.
Jimandi 