Day: April 14, 2026

Signs

I see lots of interesting signs along the way.

Not clear why you can’t walk there. This was by a magnesium mine so maybe they just don’t want you wandering around.
Basque has a lot of Ks, none in Spanish
Don’t bicycle down the stairs
Enough said

April 11: Walking Day Roncesvalles to Linzoain

Post by Charlie and Wynette:

9.1. miles, up 546 feet, down 1363 feet, six hours on the trail

We started in Roncesvalles on our 2013 Camino so we were anxious to see how much we remembered. Quite a lot it turned out although lots of details had been forgotten, as is the way with memory.  Will just talk about the day with photos.

This is the obligatory photo of just about every pilgrim who leaves Roncesvalles heading for Santiago (hi, Holly and Barbara!)  Charlie posted the one of me earlier, from both this year and 2013.
Stopped after a couple of miles for lovely breakfast.  Avocado toast, tortilla (Spanish omelette) on toast, cafe con leche, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
These very cute kids were profiting from us pilgrims.  They came skipping up to us and sold me a little yarn bracelet for one euro.
When we made the reservation for Lintzoain, we thought we were getting a private double room in a hotel-like place, Posada del Camino.  It turned out to be an albergue.  So, we had three beds, but we had the room to ourselves.
We had a very nice group dinner in the albergue.  Shared with Antonio, from the Canary Islands (Spain), and Anika, from Denmark.

Douglas fir

We stopped at this albergue for breakfast a few days ago. I noticed the ceiling and the massive timbers and was looking up at it. The guy at the bar noticed me doing this and came over to our table and told us that the huge beam going across the top of the photo was a single piece of wood and was Douglas fir. He said it pronounced the Spanish way but we finally figured it out. He was pleased we were admiring it because he said it was his work.  He worked with wood.

In the next few days we saw lots of example of wood ceilings like this. I guess these big wood pieces used to be affordable.

I know you

In Valcarlos, Wynette was busy texting to Rhada, from the Netherlands, about getting a taxi over to the Napoleon route. Rhada was busy texting with Wynette and an Australian couple she met (Claire and Phil) who wanted to do the same thing. Then Wynette started feeling poorly and we dropped out of the ride.

The next day, we were taking our 15 minute tour of Roncesvalles and we started talking to a woman we’d never seen before about a building we were looking at. Her Australian accent was clear, so Wynette asked her “are you from Australia?”. She said yes. Wynette asked, “Is your name Claire?” She was shocked.  “How did you know my name?” We explained. After that we were saying that Claire had a good story to tell her husband. And we had a good story to put in the blog.