Last night in the gite at Lescar I met four fellow pilgrims. One of them had passed us a few days earlier, but only briefly. The others I hadn't seen before. I chatted for a while with a young Spanish guy named Raul. He had walked the camino before and was now taking a different route.
We shared a glass of rosé together and after everyone had eaten (separately) we wandered into town to look at the medieval goings on. Hmm... Well, we went. I suppose it makes a fun day out for families and so forth - it was very child friendly, with animal petting and candyfloss. However I didn't see any witches burned or virgins sacrificed, so I considered it not very medieval at all! What I did see however, was this German group who had set themselves up on a stage with some frightening sounding name. I was expecting an hour of ear piercing death metal. What we got instead was techno-bagpipes performed by some extras from Lord Of The Rings:
In the morning, after a fitful night caused by the woman in our dorm who snored like a machine all night, I asked Raul if he wanted to walk together and he agreed. One thing about sharing a dorm with others is that many pilgrims have this idea that one needs to get up while it's still dark and leave at first light. Not that that's my preference, but when others start rustling about and doors are being opened (albeit respectfully) then one rather tends to join in.
So we were out of the gite at first light - around 07:15. A small mix up on the way out of town (caused largely by me and Raul chatting, so we missed on of the signs) meant we weren't fully on our way until around 07:45, but once on the camino we made good progress. As the sun rose on our path the looming Pyrénées appeared before us, impressive as ever.
This was a stage that had had everyone talking. Apparently it was a "difficult" stage, over 32km with 800m of elevation.
There were numerous climbs up through woods, but nothing struck me as particularly severe or difficult. Of course the views were magnificent. At one point fairly early on we crested a rise coming out of a wood and there before us in bright sunshine were the mountains.
We stopped for a bite to eat just after halfway, and some of the going got difficult because of the rocky and uneven path. I'm very glad I followed advice and bought some walking poles because they aid balance wonderfully and help avoid undue stresses when negotiating uneven ground.
After a pleasant day spent chatting with Raul we got our first view of Oloron around mid afternoon.
Fortunately it was only an additional 1km into the town and one of the preferred gites we were looking for soon appeared. Rather than go searching for the one that had advertised wifi I simply walked through the door and dumped my rucksack, happy to have completed an enjoyable but fairly tiring day. It was 4pm. As I checked in I met Christiane - who I'd last seen only two days before. She and François had arrived from Lacommande an hour or so earlier. In fact the gite soon filled up. By evening there would be a dozen or more pilgrims sharing the place.
Oloron sits on two rivers, this is part of the old town over the river Aspe
Here's a doorway typical of so many seen around the place
After a shower and a change of clothes I wandered into the town to see if it would be worth hanging around - maybe think about getting my paints out! I wandered over to the other end of the town to visit the Cathedral of Sainte Marie. I'm very glad I did. Another UNESCO listed monument, with a 12th Century Roman portal, and some fascinating stuff inside - including this Merovingian sarcophagus from the 6th century. I don't really know why but I find myself fascinated by the age of these things, largely irrespective of what they are.
Anyway, having now walked several km further I decided it was time to eat. I got back to the gite realising I was now very tired. My new friend Robert then turned up, so in fact we'd managed to meet again after only two days, although everyone was quite tired by now. I'd also established that there wasn't any reason to be hanging around in Oloron, so I retired to bed early only to discover two things: a) that the gite was in the very busiest (i.e. noisiest) part of town, and that the same woman who'd snored for France last night was now sharing our dorm again! Sure enough she didn't disappoint. Like something built by Toshiba she slipped into sleep shortly after I retired, and began her unceasing, rhythmic snore for the following eight hours! And just as it FINALLY stopped around 05:45, and I fell happily towards a snatched hour of sleep, her alarm rang - of course, it was now tomorrow and time to get up!
We shared a glass of rosé together and after everyone had eaten (separately) we wandered into town to look at the medieval goings on. Hmm... Well, we went. I suppose it makes a fun day out for families and so forth - it was very child friendly, with animal petting and candyfloss. However I didn't see any witches burned or virgins sacrificed, so I considered it not very medieval at all! What I did see however, was this German group who had set themselves up on a stage with some frightening sounding name. I was expecting an hour of ear piercing death metal. What we got instead was techno-bagpipes performed by some extras from Lord Of The Rings:
In the morning, after a fitful night caused by the woman in our dorm who snored like a machine all night, I asked Raul if he wanted to walk together and he agreed. One thing about sharing a dorm with others is that many pilgrims have this idea that one needs to get up while it's still dark and leave at first light. Not that that's my preference, but when others start rustling about and doors are being opened (albeit respectfully) then one rather tends to join in.
So we were out of the gite at first light - around 07:15. A small mix up on the way out of town (caused largely by me and Raul chatting, so we missed on of the signs) meant we weren't fully on our way until around 07:45, but once on the camino we made good progress. As the sun rose on our path the looming Pyrénées appeared before us, impressive as ever.
There were numerous climbs up through woods, but nothing struck me as particularly severe or difficult. Of course the views were magnificent. At one point fairly early on we crested a rise coming out of a wood and there before us in bright sunshine were the mountains.
We stopped for a bite to eat just after halfway, and some of the going got difficult because of the rocky and uneven path. I'm very glad I followed advice and bought some walking poles because they aid balance wonderfully and help avoid undue stresses when negotiating uneven ground.
After a pleasant day spent chatting with Raul we got our first view of Oloron around mid afternoon.
Fortunately it was only an additional 1km into the town and one of the preferred gites we were looking for soon appeared. Rather than go searching for the one that had advertised wifi I simply walked through the door and dumped my rucksack, happy to have completed an enjoyable but fairly tiring day. It was 4pm. As I checked in I met Christiane - who I'd last seen only two days before. She and François had arrived from Lacommande an hour or so earlier. In fact the gite soon filled up. By evening there would be a dozen or more pilgrims sharing the place.
Oloron sits on two rivers, this is part of the old town over the river Aspe
Here's a doorway typical of so many seen around the place
After a shower and a change of clothes I wandered into the town to see if it would be worth hanging around - maybe think about getting my paints out! I wandered over to the other end of the town to visit the Cathedral of Sainte Marie. I'm very glad I did. Another UNESCO listed monument, with a 12th Century Roman portal, and some fascinating stuff inside - including this Merovingian sarcophagus from the 6th century. I don't really know why but I find myself fascinated by the age of these things, largely irrespective of what they are.
Anyway, having now walked several km further I decided it was time to eat. I got back to the gite realising I was now very tired. My new friend Robert then turned up, so in fact we'd managed to meet again after only two days, although everyone was quite tired by now. I'd also established that there wasn't any reason to be hanging around in Oloron, so I retired to bed early only to discover two things: a) that the gite was in the very busiest (i.e. noisiest) part of town, and that the same woman who'd snored for France last night was now sharing our dorm again! Sure enough she didn't disappoint. Like something built by Toshiba she slipped into sleep shortly after I retired, and began her unceasing, rhythmic snore for the following eight hours! And just as it FINALLY stopped around 05:45, and I fell happily towards a snatched hour of sleep, her alarm rang - of course, it was now tomorrow and time to get up!
No news is apparently good news....
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