Oops - today we crossed the Pyrenees!

This morning we left the little alburgue at Orisson about 7:45 and continued on the "route Napoleon", so named because Napoleon used it to enter Spain through the mountain pass from Aquitaine during the Napoleonic wars.
It was a steep climb to 1400 meters and got pretty cold and breezy, but we were VERY grateful that we weren't dealing with snow or rain.
As we came down to breakfast there were peregrinos from St. Jean lined up outside the alburgue, looking for coffee and breakfast - they must have left St. Jean at 4:30 or 5:00 in the dark!
Our breakfast consisted of cafe au lait, bread (you could toast if it you stood in line at the toaster), with butter and jam, and orange juice. We had pre-ordered sandwiches to have for the road, B had ham and cheese and I chose pate, expecting to have something resembling liver wurst, but it was more like a mixture of chorizo, potato, tomato, and other unknowns. Interesting.
The pictures show our day, pretty much in order. We stopped at Roncesvalles to use the facilities, get a stamp in our pilgrim passport, and eat our sandwiches; although there was a large alburgue there we didn't stop, it just felt too early, so we walked another 6.5km or so, to Espinal. There are 8 folks staying here, in double bunks as last night, from Brazil, Sweden, Germany, and Canada, besides us.














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