Stage 0 : getting to St Jean Pied de Port

Day started off with lots and lots of rain.  We drove over some beautiful mountain areas.  I always find tunnels cool and we went thru some real long ones.  Our destination was San Sabastian airport which is steps from the French border.  One note, I wouldn't do it this way again,  just a big pain it was. 

From the airport we walked about 2 km to the train station from there we took a local train to Hendaye.  Then in Hendaye we had to wait 3 hours for the next train.  I forgot that weekend times are different than during the week, so choices are limited.  When we got to Bayonne in France we had a 30 minute wait to catch the bus.  Aparently here is a train too but it doesn't always run.  Seems strange but so be it.  When the bus arrived it was a mad dash to find a spot for your luggage.  We lucked out got ours in and got seats.  Great bus ride up to Saint Jean, green mountain is with houses scattered along the way.  When we arrived at St Jean it started to por so out with all the rain gear to try and not be smoking wet after our first day.  Good news is everything seemed to have worked as advertised.  

We checked into our hotel.  Joe booked it cause he doesn't really want to stay in hostels.  Whats funny is, the apartment is nice but all the bed sheets came in a plastic bag and you had to make your own bed.  That's a first for me, this is going to be interesting.

After check-in we wandered around the town walls and got our pilgims passports.  We will have to get it stamped each day as we go.  Tomorrow a short walk 8km but its all uphill with a gain of 700m.  I'm not going to do the math but it should be a nice slow start.

Here are a few pictures from around St. Jean.