Becoming Pilgrims

We are in St Jean Pied de Port.  Arrived this morning after driving from Salles de Bain, another lovely town.  We only had 50km to drive today as we wanted to get to St Jean early.  Although it is Easter Friday, everything is open, even the bank, so we were able to get cash out for the Camino as we don't know if we can use our credit card in the small villages.

Very busy here in St Jean.  it's a tourist town as well as the Easter weekend and the starting  point for many pilgrims.  Late this afternoon we watched from our hotel window as walkers filed through the narrow streets searching for their accomadation for the night.

Tomorrow we will drive 50km to Bayonne to drop off the rental car, meet up with Anita, then catch the train back to St Jean.

Today we officially became pilgrims as we attended the Pilgrim Office to receive our 'Credintial del Perigrino'. We made a donation and choose our scallop shell to tie onto our packs.  It was quite a moment, we had finally made it to this first point and will  begin walking in just two days!  My next blog will be from somewhere along the Camino.