Roncesvalles

Roncesvalles - Monday

We took a taxi from Pamplona to Roncesvalles, about 30 miles. The taxi took the same road that we will be cycling on tomorrow. Yikes!  It's narrow with switchbacks and steep ups and downs.

Upon arriving at Roncesvalles, our bikes were already at the hotel. We set them up and fitted them.

Then we sat out on the patio and met pilgrims who had hiked from Saint Jean Pied de port where most of the walkers start.

We stayed at the Hotel La Posada Roncesvalles and got our first pilgrim's stamp.

Dinner was pasta with chorizo and a fish with frites followed by flan.

After dinner over 200 pilgrims packed the monastery church for the blessing of the pilgrims Mass.

Then we packed up our panniers and went to bed.

Buen Camino

We are traveling across Spain on the Camino de Santiago with pellegrinos (pilgrims) from all over the world. Although most are walking, we are bicycling. 

When greeting a pellegrino, the standard greeting is "Buen Camino" which means "Have a good Camino." This phrase is interchangeable with "Buenos Dias," "Hello," "On your left," or "get out of the way because my shoes are clipped into these pedals and my bike is very heavy with these panniers, so please don't make me swerve to get out of your way."

Since we're biking on the road, and the walkers are walking on the path, whenever our paths cross we greet them with "Buen Camino!" 

Pellegrinos respond with either "Buen Camino" or something in their native language. We don't comprehend, but assume that they could be saying, "the same to you," "you're crazy to do this on a bike," or "my feet are killing me."

Pilgrim Baggage

Pilgrims traveling the Camino are advised to limit the weight of their backpack to 10% of their body weight. I couldn't find a similar benchmark for cycling pilgrims. My bag seems bigger than what my three amigos brought. Maybe it's the 6 pounds of Cytomax and Gu that I'll consume while cycling. Perhaps it's the 7 travel guides. I ripped out the pages of the paces in Spain where we're not going in order to lighten my load. 

Or perhaps it's the electronics gear.  A geek like me doesn't unplug easily. I had no problem leaving my work laptop at home since it wouldn't fit in the panniers. But I brought the Blackberry because surely the company won't be able to get by without getting me on a conference call. I'm well known for getting lost while cycling, so I downloaded maps of Spain to my GPS and routed each day. I know they have yellow arrows all along the route pointing in the right direction, and all the pilgrims are heading west, but getting lost is one of my core competencies, so I didn't want to risk going without my Garmin. 

God wouldn't expect me to make this pilgrimage without having GoPro video for the blog, would He? Perhaps I overdid it bringing a solar panel for recharging all the devices while we ride. But, who knows how many outlets there will be at the alburgues (hostels). I'm sure the solar panel will have another use when Florida loses power in a hurricane, and I'll be able to charge my phone. At least that's how I justified the purchase.

I guess you could say that I'm carrying a lot of baggage.

Self-cleaning fabric?

If my girls were with me, this would have been our first stop in Barcelona. Thankfully, Lauren is a designer and wanted to go as well, and we all found something interesting among the award winning designs.

I took photos of what interests me most: bikes and textiles.

There was a fascinating section on new materials such as plastics that emit light, transparent concrete, materials that resist fingerprints, and two fabrics that we wish we had bike clothes made out of for our Camino: a self-cleaning fabric that repels germs and never has to be washed, and a fabric that emits aloe vera lotion.

A plexiglass tutu?

Electric folding bike

Adios Miami

Our Camino begins. Lauren is already in Europe, and Paul, Linda and I are boarding flights at 3 different airports on our way to Barcelona. I've left my usual business roll aboard, laptop case, business suit and heels at home and brought my Camelbak. 

We're off on a great adventure, bicycling the Camino de Santiago together.  We met each other on a bike trip across Utah, and this will be a great reunion. The Camino is a pilgrimage route and people travel it for many reasons. The journey is its own reward, and one of the blessings of this trip will be sharing the experience with fellow pilgrims from all over the world.