Camino de Santiago — Day 1

September 9 / Honto — Roncesvalles

We woke at 6.30am. I packed and we went to have breakfast to the main house of the albergue. I asked for a chocolate and the friendly French lady from yesterday almost spited at me for wanting something different. What a joy! But it didn’t matter. I was enjoying this gorgeous view of the dawn with the fog in the valley. Despite the owner, I highly recommend coming here or to Orisson (2km up) because of the views.

I was one of the first pilgrims of my albergue to start the Camino. The first kilometers had a great slope so I had to go slowly getting used to the backpack and waking up my feet. This stretch could be one of the hardest of the Camino. But in fact I was going faster than almost everyone else. I have never had problems going up so I didn’t suffer that much. I crossed the Orisson albergue where the people who started in St Jean-Pied-de-Port stopped to have breakfast. They really deserved it because it shouldn’t have been fun to do those first 8 hard kilometers starting at 5.30am.

Until here views were to the valley with the dawn and the fog below it. I stopped many times admiring the beauty of nature and the luck I was having for such a great weather.

I kept going until a food truck which had the last French stamp. A bit after there was a statue of the Virgin with another amazing view; and of course, more and more slopes. At last I arrived at the passage to Spain. Suddenly there were more marks of the Camino. If you think you may get lost, it’s impossible in Spain.

I crossed a beautiful beech forest. It was a pity they weren’t with Autumn colors yet. After some time we could choose between going down through another beech forest, with a sharp descent or a smoother way. It wasn’t clear which was the best way in fact. I chose the beech forest and I am really glad I did, but you have to walked with precaution. Many people chose that way or followed others, and they had a bad time on the first sharp slope. If you have problems with your knees, choose the other way.

Around 1.30pm, Alberto and I arrived at the albergue of Roncesvalles. We got a bed and we went to eat something. One of the restaurants was all booked so we ate some sandwiches in its terrace. Once the albergue opened, I tidied up and I did the first laundry. I only had 3 changes of clothes so from now on I had to wash every afternoon and hope the sun dried the clothes.

At 6pm I joined a tour to visit the monastery and the church of Santiago. It was a really good tour in fact, leaded by a friendly young woman called Mercedes. Just after that I went to have a good dinner to the restaurant. I shared the table with three other pilgrims: Michael (Danish), Eugene (Irish) and a retired German.

After dinner I went to the pilgrim mass. The church was full of pilgrims, believers and not believers. That night there were 450 pilgrims in the albergue from ~20 countries. The most moving part was the end with the pilgrim prayer in different languages.

After dinner I met Mercedes and we drank a beer chatting about life and my next days. Just before 10pm I went back to the albergue because that was the closing time. Just so you know, the albergue is gigantic. It has 3 floors, each with 40 open rooms and 4 beds each. But it was renovated a few years ago so it was comfortable despite the volume of people it hosted. I shared room with Ricardo (Brazilian), Stephanie (Irish) and another girl who I didn’t meet.