Pasajes de San Juan

The international bridge between Hendaye (France) and Irun (Spain), This was the start of our camino.

The view of Hendaye and Irun from the hills on the way back to San Sebastian.

One day of walking done and only 825 km to go.

The plan was to go to Irun today then walk back to San Sebastian, a distance of about 19 miles. Didn't quite make but I think we still did pretty good for a couple of old guys.

We did get a good 8 hours of sleep, so I think we are pretty much on Spanish time now. We had a two mile walk back to the bus station, only to find there were no buses to Irun until afternoon. So half a mile back to the train station and there was a train leaving in 20 minutes. We missed the Irun stop and ended up at the last station just over the border in France. So we started walking from there, back over the International Bridge, maybe an extra kilometer or so. After two or three km of Irun, it was out in the country and a very steep climb on Mount Jazkibel, actually the highest point of the trail along the Camino Norte, so that's good, I guess. The path was a stony dirt track with a few other hikers but no other pilgrims in sight. By the time we reached Pasajes, we had walked a total of 17 1/2 miles of lots of ups and downs. It was 4:30.  We decided to stop at the albergue here, part of an old church high on the hill overlooking the inlet and harbor- a miilion dollar view from a donativo albergue. We were both getting a bit sore and tired and decided not to overdo it the first day. 

The scenery and the views are fantastic. I am posting from my iTouch ad we are enjoying our first Spanish wine in a bar with wi-fi. Taking lots of photos and will post some when I can. We will walk back through San Sebastian tomorrow and on beyond. It looks like like Greg just fell asleep in his bar chair, so I better post and wake him up so we can find some dinner.