Day 4

We awoke this morning to the gentle rocking of the train and light coming in through the curtain of the train car window. My phone said 6 a.m. and the conductor had promised he would come by knocking on doors at 7 a.m.  But we forgot that there was an hour's time difference between Lisbon and Madrid, and so it was already 7, just a little over an hour before our train pulled in to the Chamartin Train Station in downtown.

It's kinda nice not having to worry about washing your hair! The morning ablations thus sped up a bit, we headed down to the coach car to grab a bite of breakfast. The food selection wasn't much, so Sharon had one of the protein bars while I had the Bolycao, chocolate in a small loaf of bread. And of course, we both had coffee:

Before we knew it we were pulling in to the train station in Madrid! You can take the Metro across town, but we opted to avoid the commuter rush and just caught a taxi the short drive over to the station  at Atocha. Quite a modern station, as someone had observed, more like an airport than a train station. We had a couple of hours to kill so we walked around and then found a place to sit.

It was in Madrid that we saw our first pilgrims and were recognized as being pilgrims ourselves. Almudena and her dauaghter live in Austin, Texas and they were getting on the same train with us to Pamplona and also planned to make it to Cizur Menor the first night.  Very friendly folks, and we met them again at night when we got to our alburgue.

The train ride from Madrid to Pamplona was pretty quick, leaving about 11:25 and getting to Pamplona in about 2:40.  We began to notice the big differences in the scenery. Here are some train pics:

We arrived in Pamplona, strapped out of the train station and looked around. No sign of the other pilgrims who had been on the train. We learned later they had all taken taxis--didn't know you could do that! We had told Jim Morgan exactly what we were going to do--walk out the front door and ask the first person we see, "Donde esta la casa de Pepe?"

But what we did was to ask the first person to show us the direction to the Camino. We got a vague indication to cross the bridge, turn left and go up the hill. We stopped another couple further along and they assured us we were on the right way. And finally we saw it, the first indication that we were indeed on the Camino:

Shortly after seeing the first street sign, we began to notice the steel plaques with the familiar Camino seashell motif about every 10 or 20 feet apart. It might be easy to get lost in some places, but at least not in Pamplona.

Our next job was to get our pilgrim credentials stamped. We had heard that most coffee shops had stamps, and since it was almost time for another cup, we found a nice cafe with tables on the sidewalk. In we went and sure enough, for just over two euros we got a couple of cappucinos AND had our credentials stamped. The guy there was so friendly, he said he would only charge us 15 euros for the stamps, but of course he was only kidding. Here it is, our first stamp:

The stamps are to prove that we have indeed walked the camino. To receive the official certificate at the very end, you must have your document stamped daily, then twice daily during the last 100 kilometers, or about 60 miles.

We eased on out of Pamplona, down the hill and then upwards towards Cizur Menor. The book said it was five kilometers to our first lodging. We passed through some gorgeous parks, wheat fields and countryside and here are a few of the shots:

In Cizur Menor, there are two pilgrim lodging places, and we chose the Alburgue Maribel Roncal, a private residence. Its quite nice and people from everywhere. We visited with several Americans, a German gentleman, a Mexican architect living in Switzerland and saw several other nationalities. 

The place we are staying is privately owned, but relatively inexpensive. We paid just 10 euros per person, and there are only five of us in this room, although there are a dozen beds. I think there are about three other rooms, but one of them was alaready dark with the pilgrims peacefully snoring.  Here's a look at our place:

The grounds and the flowers are immaculate. There's a turtle pond, large yard and a room with television and wifi, which was quite popular earlier when Germany and Portugal were playing their World Cup game. Sorry for your loss, Portuguese friends!

After a refreshing shower and washing our clothes, we set off to find a restaurant and weren't too disappointed. They had a "pilgrim menu" which consisted of a starter of soup, rice or pasta, followed by the main course and dessert. We had chicken and fries as the main course and Sharon had tiramisu while I had the ice cream. It was passable, but we decided tomorrow we would try to eat from the Spanish menu! Anyway, for those following our food pictures, here's dinner:

Sorry, when they brought me my ice cream, it turned out to be a cone with chocolate and vanilla like you buy in the store. I ate it before I remembered to take the picture!

We walked back to the room and visited awhile with the three others sharing this space and I caught up on my blog. I see that is going to be a problem because everyone is so nice and you just enjoy visiting with them.

So we are doing what we have been recommended to do. We took our shower when we got in, now we have on tomorrow's walking clothes and we are about to hit the hay. In the morning we'll get up when we feel like it and start walking. We made a reservation in Puente La Reina at a fairly new albergue that came recommended by our hostess here. It is a bit pricier, but then again we have a room to ourselves!  So until tomorrow.....

Buen camino, peregrino!