Yes, this is the foot (pied) of the pass (port) through which goes the Napoleon Route at the start of this 33 leg route known by Camino de Santiago. Let me give you the view of the albergue where I am staying tonight. It’s a nice space, clean and welcoming, which I’ll be sharing with two roommates from Vermont. I promise more pictures in the future, but I’m still wrestling with some pretty squirrely wifi.

Perhaps you expected me to be posting this afternoon from the Spanish side of the pass, but need for sleep got in the way. I wish now I could have spent more time in Bayonne, where I landed last night way to late to do anything but find an affordable hotel and wait for today to travel the one hour further, by train, to SJPP. When the alarm went off at 6am, urging me to find my way to the train station for an 8am departure, I reset it and went back to sleep. I feel pretty good today, even without a morning cup of coffee, but have to remind myself that although it is after 5pm here, it’s not yet noon in SA. Good morning, y’all!

Got my Pilgrim Passport which will allow me to stay in the numerous public albergues along the way. More importantly, you get a distinctive stamp at each stage of the 33 to get to Santiago de Compostella. I think this gets you a free pass to heaven, or something like that. It’s certainly a memento which will remind me of the experience. But for now the “way” is ahead and I’m looking forward to the challenge and what the experience offers. I just hope I’m alert enough to know what I’m being offered.

For now, I will leave you while I figure out how to get pictures from my phone over to this tablet so I can share them with you couched in my unsolicited prose. Bye for now.