Day 31: Ostabat to St. Jean Pied De Port!! 21 Kilometers

So awoke early to prepare for our day.  Breakfast wasn't hitting on much except for serving Pound Cake! Hilarious. Not a long day of walking but we hoped to get there early enough to explore St. Jean. Got a good jump on the day and kept our pace brisk.  It was tough as Joan has developed a cold but was pushing through it. The fog was pretty thick and provided us these rainbow like images as the sun rose. Didn't stop until we got to a town four kilometers short of our destination where we had our first proper coffee in two days. And it was a good one, too. We finally arrived at SJPP at 11:30. We were surprised to find a throng of people but most of them were tourists. They seemed to disappear early in the afternoon. The first order of business was to get our Tampon on our Creanciale (stamp on our credential). We then wandered town for quite a while scoping things out and procuring a few things for tomorrow's climb over the Pyrenees. We actually arrived in time to catch the end of Mass at the cathedral. After eating a little for lunch, we sat and rested while we waited for our Gite to open.  We finally checked in and this place is exceptional.  Paid a bit more than we have been in the Gites but we really needed a good stay before going on. After cleaning up and doing laundry we rested until late afternoon when we then took off to see a little history. Walked to the Citadel at the top of town and the views were really neat.  We found a couple more food stuffs for our day tomorrow (a Monday, bad day for stores) and then found a place serving an early supper. Calling it a night early so we can both (Joan especially) be well rested for tomorrow.  

Hard to believe we have "connected the dots" on our Caminos/Chemin from LePuy all the way to the Spanish coast.  That's some 1700 kilometers or over 1000 miles.  We'll try to wrap our heads around this when it's over but in the meantime...onward and upward!!

Gite Azkorria - What a superb place! Everything here is top notch. Great location. Owner is excellent (very helpful and gave us a discount too!). Highly recommend.

Day 30: Aroue to Ostabat 23 Kilometers

Bid a fond adieu to our hostess Evelyn, then her husband Guy gave us a ride back to resume our path where we left off in Aroue.  He gave us his business card and told us if we had any problems the rest of the way we should call him and he would help us. Love those people. He gave me some walnuts from a tree in his backyard. We felt like we were moving at a snails pace today but we clicked off some kilometers while the air was cool. Stayed on the path rather than take the popular shortcut and went to a wonderful spot on top of a mountain. The vista was amazing. Enjoyed our picnic and had a long rest.  Afterward, we continued our slow pace until we arrived in Ostabat where we rested until we could check into our Gite which was only a short jaunt away (yes, we were still early...again). This Gite is one of the popular spots where everyone wants to be so it's very crowded. We had been trying to avoid that but we are thankful for our accomodations. The evening meal was traditional and sufficient.  Things were a bit loud with 30 people in a small room. It included some basque folk singing with the owner who loves to perform.  It was interesting but a bit long.  On to St Jean Pied de Port tomorrow!

Gite Gaineko Xteia - A purpose-built facility. Relatively clean except for a sewage smell outside on the deck. Meal was fair. Too many people.