We arrived in St. Jean Pied de Port around noon. We had a delicious crepe lunch and looked around the lovely town. The small village had its origins all the way back to the 12th century. It is old and very charming with many hostels and other accommodations for “pilgrims” beginning El Camino.

After lunch we walked a small piece to the ” pilgrims office” to get our credentials. Basically, that’s a card that declares that we are going on this journey as a pilgrimage, and we we acquire stamps along the way to affirm our continued dedication. Many of the hostels will require us to oshow these when we check in. While waiting outside, I found it interesting that we were among the younger of pilgrims represented. Also, most everyone was speaking other languages than we were, of course!

We got our credentials and after a bit more exploring checked into our hostel. We are 2 of 7 in our room. The other 5 are men. It feels a little bit strange, but also feels like a normal part of a pilgrimage like this.

We chose a Basque restaurant for dinner. Basque is the name of the indigenous community who have their origins in St. Jean Pied de Port. I ordered a trout dish and was served a whole fish! I actually enjoyed it very much.

The best part of our dinner was being joined by a young lady who is also doing El Camino. She was from Scotland, and quite a bit younger than we, but we had such a nice time connecting over the things we have in common. I think this will be one of my favorite parts of El Camino— connecting with so many people, from so many different cultures, over a common journey.

After dinner we went back to the hostel, or auberge as it’s called here, and went to sleep. We managed fine, even though we were sharing a room with several men. We all kept to ourselves, which worked just fine. 😊

Tomorrow, we begin our walk! Buen Camino!!