Day 2 - Orisson to Roncesvalles
Partly cloudy and showers
I was hoping for nice weather up the Pyrenees and that is what I got. Mountains far and near, tiny farmhouses dotting the mountainside, animals and of course, a stream of pilgrims. We thought we have a lot of time for the race for a bed in Roncesvalles. Surely we will beat those coming in from St Jean because we have a two hour headstart. It all unraveled on our way down the final approach, a steep descent to Roncesvalles when Gigi complained about stiffness in her tendons around the knee. That made it very slow going. Worse, she took a tumble right after both Winnie and I both slipped but caught ourselves. Interestingly, her knee was working a little better after the tumble.
We are not sure whether there was some work done to the albergue but there are lots of beds; at least 72 beds on each of the three floors. We also saw some beds on a lower floor. That many beds but at the end of the day, there were still people coming in without getting a bed and had to be diverted (not sure where to). So maybe the race is justified.
We got our beds. After the struggle down the hill, that is the only thing we really need. The albergue pretty much has everything with vending machines, microwaves, laundry machines for a fee, (laundering by hand is free which we think is how it is supposed to be), kitchen with supply of cooking utensils and free Wi-Fi!
The 72 beds on each floor is one huge room. It is partitioned in units of 4's so you can think of being in a room of 4 instead of 72. After sharing in 10-person rooms the last couple of nights, it is actually a nice change. We do have 72 people sharing the two bathrooms though.
One of the disappointments of the day is the pilgrim meal. The food is so-so and the dessert is a regular tub of yogurt. Feels wrong when you eat at a restaurant. But may be understandable for a 10£ meal that come with wine, good wine too.
The other disappointment is with the tour of Roncesvalles around the seminary that includes the church, the museum, the St James (St Jacques in French and Santiago in Spanish) and the local cemetery (the size of maybe a couple of basketball court, it can hold the entire town indoor, talk about small town). Lots of things to see so there is no problem there. For 2£, that is definitely worth it. It was disappointing only because of the language barrier. The guide gave a multi language tour but English is not her strong suit.
Then my phone died. It kept complaining about Google play services have stopped but never explain or help resolve it. I tried to delete Google play services but then the whole system becomes unusable. I bit the bullet and reset the phone as if it is new. Getting the blog done right now is a minor miracle.
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