Start: Dublin; End: St Jean Pied de Port. Total travelled: lots.
It’s just gone 9pm. Officially lights out in the hostel is at 10.30, but the light in the room doesn’t work anyway and the eight beds in the room are already full of resting pilgrims . The sleeping bag I’m in was last used to contain a hangover at Electric Picnic, so being in bed by 9 is new for both of us. As we have to be out by 8am (house rules) and we have an 8 hour climb into the Pyranees ahead of us tomorrow, it’s probably not a bad thing.
We had dinner in a little pizzeria down the road. A local cat played with the diners as they ate, and when I went to use the bathroom, a local dog was playing with the staff in the kitchen.
We started the day with a taxi ride to Dublin airport at 6.30. We entertained the taxi driver with the usual questions of `are you busy?’ and ‘are you starting or finishing?’. He responded by saying how he heard on the radio that someone had died recently on the Camino. It was nice of him to show such interest, I thought.
Once we reached Biarritz airport we were able to get a bus journey to the Bayonne train station for only €1. The bus was full of Irish – some were going for the Camino (boots and backpacks) and the rest were going to Lourdes (fancy roll-cases and pretty silk scarves). One gent was nice enough to open a packet of cheese flavoured popcorn he’d brought from home, so everyone on the busy bus was able to enjoy the aroma.
As we passed a bridge in Bayonne town centre, we all noticed the flags of the Basque country which flew high above it in red and green. ‘Up Mayo!’, shouted popcorn man. Oh, how we laughed.
We got train tickets in Bayonne station and had a bite to eat as we waited for our train. The three waitresses on duty were very busy doing things that had nothing to do with serving food to customers. My father tried his French on one lady as she handed him our beers. ‘Danke’, he said. She didn’t respond. When we saw her deal with other customers, we realised that she could ask for money in English, but she could only smile in French. As we left, my dad tried his luck again. ‘Merci’, but she was as unimpressed with his French as she was with his German. We left her a €0.70 tip, which was pretty generous as that’s nearly enough for a bus ticket to the airport.
We picked up our Camino Credentials when we arrived in SJPP, and were directed towards a refuge with available beds. Within two hours, we were wandering around the town showing new pilgrims where to go.
Tomorrow we start walking.
BaldFeet 
Hi Grandad & Dermot – Niamhy here – we were looking at our map today and have a question – are you still in France or now in Spain – we drew both flags – on an unrelated topic I want to know Grandad (&Dermot) why you’re not here for Grandma’s birthday – Grandma, Emer & Mama are going out to dinner without us!!!!! Have a great day tomorrow and hope your feet are fine – Niamhy
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Dear Niamhy,
Grandad and Dermot here.
Yes, we crossed the border between France and Spain today, but got very wet while doing it as it was raining heavily in both countries! We´re now in a place called Roncesvalles, which is our first stop inside Spain. To celebrate, Dermot had a Spanish omelette for dinner, but Grandad had a whole fish – cooked with the head on and everything!
Grandad says you need to talk to Granma about why Grandad´s not going to be at Granma´s birthday. Granma told Grandad to go on this big long walk with Dermot and when Granma tells Grandad to do something, he does it straight away! (just like you do, Niamhy, when Mama tells you to do something!)
After dinner, Grandad went to a special Pilgrim´s Mass in the church here where we´re staying. But Dermot didn´t go, cause he wanted to write another post to let everybody know how things are going!
Our feet are a little sore, but we´re going to bed early every night to make sure we recover in time for the next day.
Lots of love to Niamh, Sé, Liam, Fiona, Áine and all the big people from Grandad and Dermot.
P.s. (from Dermot only) Grandad snores like a big gorilla!!!
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We heard that German TV are filming you – we hope they make a movie,- (we were getting fed up with Madagascar anyway) oiche mhaith, codlath siochanta, – SLAN&F!
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Hi SLAN/F,
This is Dermot. Grandad has already gone to bed. He was exhausted by the prospect of international stardom and needs to get his beauty sleep in case the film crew come back looking for more footage.
We were told that they would make a documentary about the Camino for German TV, so it´s a little like a film, but Grandad and Dermot will only be in it for a very short bit, if at all. We may well be cut out because we´re just too pretty.
If we do make it to the final cut, the documentary will be shown on ZDF on German television on January 5th. As it´s in German, Fiona will need to translate for SLAN. But if you like it, maybe you can record it and use it to learn German while living in the US.
Hope you´re all behaving yourselves (but I doubt it).
Love, Dermot
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da only thing dat is like not at all simler to this, but it’s climbing, Is me climbing da skalp
btw, I’ve climbed it 5 times, hoping to climb it da 6th time this weekend
I’m on mah iPod
but I nearly smashed it 😱😱😱
just tellin ya some newes
Claire
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Awesome that you´ve climbed the Skalp five times (nearly six). A bit of mountain climing would certainly help on something like this. Dad and I were doing some training before we came here, but a lot of people we have met had never walked very far at all before coming here. It´s not the walking that´s hard, it´s carrying a big heavy bag. Also, walking one day at a time is easy, but walking 10 days in a row is very tiring!
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BUT I DIDN’T SMASH IT
I DIDN’T
🐯🐯🐯🐯
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