Roncesvalles – Day 1

Our taxi dropped us off at our first accommodation on our Camino de Santiago. It’s a very, very small mountain town with a very, very big church founded in the 12th century, to help take care of the pilgrims along the way. You can read and see a bunch of cool stuff Here.

I’m staying in the hotel right next to the albergue that Bill and Bruce are staying in. With COVID being a dominating feature in our Camino, I opted for a more ….individual….type accommodation, as opposed to the group experience. Basically, I didn’t really want to listen to anyone snore, and have to share a bathroom with anyone. Although, there will be some places were that is unavoidable.

The bunk beds are limited to a ‘bubble’ to keep Covid at bay, so they don’t have to share with anyone. There are nice lockers to put all their stuff in. Very, very thoughtful. They also pay €2 for disposable sheets. While it was super quiet when we arrived, people started to trickle in. Haven’t heard any English being spoken, yet.

Weird thing when eating dinner. Because of Covid, they are very specific about wearing masks, social distancing, disinfecting hands, and surfaces, and that all the menus are now on QR codes so they don’t have print out menus for people to handle. However, we were seated at a table for 4. The restaurant sat a very nice Spaniard at our table to eat with us. Never seen him before, yet here he is, rubbing elbows with my brother, and seated directly across from me. The rules make no sense at all.

We decide a nice thing to do before we start our Camino, is to attend mass. We received a special pilgrim blessing in a beautiful church and went to bed for an early start.