After my week in Paris, G and I travelled south by train to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to start our Camino de Santiago. We didn’t have the 40 days required to walk all the way from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostella, so we booked the Highlights trip with RAW Travel. We walked the first three days over the Pyrenees, then used trains and a private transfer over four days through the middle section before walking the last 100 km from Sarria into Santiago. RAW Travel booked all our accommodation and luggage transfers and provided an app with all the information we needed.

We added an extra day at the start in case we had any transport issues getting from Paris. It all went smoothly which meant we had a day to look around St-Jean-Pied-de-Port and do our laundry. We stayed in Hotel Central on the river just outside the town walls. We arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday and wandered across the street and into the old town to check it out and scope out dinner options. The village is a beautiful basque town with predominantly white houses with red (and sometimes green) shutters. After getting familiar with the town, we headed back out of the walls to the bar across the street from our hotel for a drink on the patio overlooking the river. For dinner, we went to Restaurant Cidrerie Hurrup Eta Klik. The food was simple cooking done well. I had the trout, and we enjoyed our meal so much that we came back the next night.

Sunday morning, we walked down to the laundry in the carpark of the supermarket. There was a bit one person waiting in front of us, so while G kept our place in the queue, I went to the supermarket and picked up some snacks for the trail. There was a women’s walk/run near us, so we watched them go past while our washing was on. With the washing in the dryer we decided to go for a walk ourselves and headed against the traffic. The road wound up to a little church and past vineyards. We did a nice little circuit in the time it took our washing to dry and made sure we were back to pull it out as soon as it finished. Afterwards, we picked up a baguette and cheese for our lunch and then went to the pilgrim’s information office. The forecast for Monday was for thunderstorms, and we wanted to check if the pass over the top was open and OK to use. The lady was very helpful, and the pass was fine, but was surprised we hadn’t booked accommodation partway to Roncavelles and let us know, “It’s going to be a big day.” She provided us with a map that included photos of the main turns, which was helpful, and stamped our pilgrim’s passports with our first stamp. You can get the passport stamped at accommodations, churches, bars and various buskers and vendors along the trail. You use this to show that you have completed the pilgrimage once you get to Santiago. Then we bought some basque linen tea towels for souvenirs for us and the kids. Jobs done, we walked up to the citadel and tried to work out where we’d be walking the next day. Then we walked down and along the top of the walls. You are walking behind the houses and shops on the main street, and many of them have pretty impressive veggie gardens.

I rarely make a repeat visit to a restaurant when I’m travelling because I like to try as many as I can, but I made an exception this time so I could try their basque chicken, which was very good, too.