Day 1 St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles

A very tough day today - walked from 8am until after well after 5pm - phew it seemed like it was all up hill -we travelled through the pyrennes -it was quite cool with some snow still about - walked most of the way with Barbara a German lady (from near Studgart) now living in Nambibia - she gave me one of her walking poles to try - I enjoyed her company as Blair and Jeremy took a different route down (harder but shorter) - Barbara was quite fond of saying oh my shattered soul or four five, six when she really wanted to swear - we both took the call of nature behind the first tree only to be sprung by a fellow pilgrim passing by - should have got the shewee Rae... towards the end of the day I was really plodding just one foot in front of the othere - so was so pleased to get to the alburgue - when I came back from my shower that evening I found the pole on my bed a gift from Barbara - have walked with it ever since - that night we shared with 103 other pligrims - so strange hearing all the different languages and see poeple trying to understand each other -as we were getting ready for bed ,met a lovely young man Dean from Tauranga but living in London - Jeremy walked with him all the next day..... I'm sure they went a lot faster without Mum....

the start

What a long day - after catching the metro early in the morning to the bus station, we then took 2 buses from Madrid to Pamplona we caught another bus at 6pm to Ronseveilles, then up over the mountains by taxi into France, to a village called St Jean Pied de Port, - this was the first sign of how difficult our next day would be - St Jean even by night seemed like a beautiful village - after getting our passport credential from the passport office we stayed in luxury this first night at a Bed & breakfast with Bernard and Fafa who had only recently bought the place from NZers!! It was just Blair, Jeremy and I in one room - we had a huge bath and toilet to ourselves - so we all enjoyed this last bit of luxury - out for dinner with Barbara who we shared the taxi with - I wanted to just stay a while - as so quaint - and i didn't really feel ready to walk after all that travelling - perhaps another time....

well we are in Pamplona waiting for the bus to take us through to Ronseveilles and then on to St. Jean pied de port - Madrid was awesome the architecture and history of the place - the picture is of Jeremy and Blair outside our Hostal. The flight from LA was pretty good - we arrived quite early at the airport, too early for check in - so I got chatting to a man with lots of and very big luggage - turns out he was a kiwi and had been trying for the land speed kite record with Steve Guerney in the desert - his name is Peter Lynn, a very interesting man who travels over the world flying kites - he had been a good friend of James White. Once we were in the Koro loung we spotted Rick Hopkinson´s next neighbour Mr Callahan he was off to Heathrow - then in walked Victoria Beckham one of her boys and nanny in tow - all happens in the koro lounge eh - she was looking rather lovely we thought - anyway all for now - hope to post some more soon - Adios Jillian

on the way

Sitting at LAX in the koro lounge - it finally feels like we are off - poor Blair had a very bad night with a tummy bug or something nasty like that - so he is feeling quite poorly - hopefully he will be back to his usual chirpy self soon - we may have to stay a day or so in Madrid to regain some strength.....

Today we attended church at the Anaheim Angels stadium -it was an Easter celebration plus celebrating 30 yrs of Saddleback church - afterwards we went to Downtown Disneyland which was fun lots of shops to check out - home for a rest which meant we felt the 7.2 earthquake all the more - seems no real damage. Then out for tea at Heros a pub where you throw the peanut shells on the floor....so much food.... will be waddling across spain at this rate - Jeremy leaves tonight for Heathrow - we will meet him in Spain on Tuesday

Tonight we went to Mike & Sally's for tea - we got met the whole familywho had gathered together for Easter ! Sally made Tacos...it was a lot of fun - Mike works at Saddleback church so he showed us around earlier in the afternoon - all I can say is WOW truly amazing - tomorrow we go to a celebration at the Angel stadium (baseball) only a little walk today to the supermarket for strawberries - so cheap but i did wash my clothes by hand while I was in shower so that propably counts to preparations

California style

Decided to use the blog like a dairy otherwise will forget it all - First impressions of USA started at Auckland airport - Girls to the right, boys to the left - stood in queue waiting to be patted down - they seemed to get through the mens line so much quicker...flight over was not to bad - quite a bit of turbulance - arrived at LAX to be fingerprinted (every finger and thumbs) and photographed. Temuera Morrison also in queue - guess celebs also have to go through customs... Have done a fair bit of walking - checked out a mall, supermarket and 'quilt' shop. (literally across the road from Gayes...) can't get used to the upside down light switchs and the cars coming at you from the wrong side - very scary not to mention 6 laned highways... Yesterday Blair started talking to a man carrying a brass cross - I'm sure he would love to carry one across Spain. Just nearby are streets of cute movie style houses. reminded me of the Truman show... Today we went to Laguna beach with Gaye - we had a great time walking along the beach front lots of little crafty shops - I made a photographers day by saying WOW at his work, we are off to a 'family bar-b-cue tonight so I have made a kiwi pavlova first time in many years as that is normally Blair's mum forte... It turned out real well....