Day 2 Rest and Recoup

We awoke late in the Alberge in Roncesvalles and had a mad dash packing and being thrown out at 8:00am to the pouring rain. We joined several others, putting on our ponchos for the first time!  We assessed our physical limitations and decided that this would be a "rest day". We looked at the altitude maps and decided that we couldn't make it on our feet and the picture of crawling wasn't pretty,  we decided that 8 km was more than enough. We chose Espinal as our goal. We arrived at 10:00am and hung out, updating our blog in the Keller Cafe, having lunch and watching many walkers pass through. We literally hung out until we could check in at the alberge Irugoienea.  Spanish T.V. Is fun but showers to ourselves was a luxury. We met Three Italians, two Lithunians, one Hong Kong female and  a Dutchman. Peter had walked from Holland the past 7 weeks and told lots of stories of sleeping in barns and having coffee with local residents who answered his request for a hot cup of coffee. He got rooms,laundry and food and blessings all along the way. Ada surprised him with her "Dutch" but now we are adept in at least 8 languages using hand signals! The Hong Kong gal had arrived that day from St Jean PDP and run from there past Roncesvalles to Espinal even missing the virgin. She had not stopped for water or food and had no guidebook. She was just following people. She had no idea which direction she should be going in the rain! The last Pilgrims arrived in the pouring rain and we were  happily in bed!