Day 1 Our Camino

Left St J P de P by 7:00 am and followed the pilgrims who had already left.  We stopped at Ithurburua for water, juice and WC.  Then on to Orisson climbing all the way where we stopped for a cafe con leche ( we needed that).  Continued on to virgin statue where we had lunch and aired our feet.  Several kilometres along we were delighted to find the food truck, where Ada managed to warm her hands with a coffee.  After the border we did our final water fill up at the Fountain of Roland then on to Roncesvalles via the unfortunate forest path which was brutal.  Finally we arrived at the Albergue at 5:00pm.  According to Ada's Fitbit we did 45,367 steps, almost 31 km.  The best part was burning triple the calories that we consumed! We enjoyed the pilgrims menu at the luxury hotel next door with 3 Italians, 3 Koreans, and 1 French man.  Although we were in overflow the monastery facilities were luxurious.  The best part was the Hospitalero did our laundry while we ate dinner!  Ada collapsed into bed and Pat went to Mass with an Italian Friend (graduate Mechanical engineer) who translated parts of the service. Two pilgrims participated in the service, reading in Spanish and in English. After the Mass, the priest listed all of the countries of the visiting Pilgrims and gave us each a Blessing prayer in our own language - even Korean!