St Jean Pied de Port - aaaaagggggghhhhhhh!

It felt really weird when, after several years of planning, we suddenly found ourselves at Biarritz airport waiting at the baggage claim and then finally meeting some other 'pelegrinos'. We shared a taxi from the airport to St Jean with some interesting characters:

A group of 4 friends (2 of them Irish!) who had to be dragged from the bar to get in their pre-booked taxi, an older man and a single woman with unknown European identity. We sat at the back with the single man. 

He has been planning his trip since January and felt unfit! Recently he has climbed Kilimanjaro, hiked across the Dolomites in Italy and, last year, took a ten month bike ride from Norway to Italy via the coast - so very unfit then!

At entry gate to St Jean Pied de Port

River through St Jean

So Saint Jean is a real mix of just what we had been expecting from watching YouTube videos and 'The Way' and a complete shock to the system when seeing real pilgrims complete with huge backpacks and all the Camino signs and the arrows. We are really here! :O

Way marker showing Camino direction

Camino signpost

 So tomorrow we will get our 'credential' - the passport that we will need to get stamped along our route to prove we did it. We also plan on finding a few geocaches - it has to be done - and also we want to read up on some of the history of the region we are soon to be walking through.

Buen camino!