After our tempest in Lourdes I woke up to soggy hiking boots and clothes. We left the hotel at 6:45 and arrived at the station before 7:00. That long walk on the first day became a 10 minute walk on the last day.
We travelled to Dax, then Bayonne, then Campo des Bains and finally caught a bus for St Jean. The train wasn't operating be cause there had been flooding and a landslide along the route.
We met an architect from Uruguay who was visiting Spain to visit old relatives. He chatted through out the final train journey and then we bumped into him several times in St. Jean. Gerard / Gerald amused us with his reflections on life. . . If some bread is bad for you and plenty of bread is really bad, why aren't the French dead?
We visited the Camino Office and registered first thing. We didn't really need to because we had the credentials/ passport from the Canadian Company of Pilgrims but it was a good idea to get the lay of the land and have some questions answered. They asked if we had a place to stay in St Jean and en route. They phoned our hotel and arranged for a ride. If we did not, they would have found lodgings for us so, I you don't need to book a place in advance.
We went to the Porte d'Espagne and waited for our host to pick us up and we saw our friend from Uruguay. The hotel is fine but it's a bit far from St. Jean pied de Porte - 10 minute drive and ??? minutes walking. No bus. We checked in and called a taxi to go back into town and Thought we had arranged to have the same driver pick us up at 8:00. Nope!!!! We had to call the hotel again.
While in St Jean we found out about sending our packs to Orisson (8 Euro, labeled and in the office by 8:00 am ), went to the Pilgrim's Mass Zander bought some food for the walk in the morning.
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