September 15th, 2013

We made it to our second stop, a 17 km walk from Valcarlos to  the town of Espinal.  We had a wonderful stopover in Valcarlos, a beautiful Little town in the Pyrenees in the heart of Basque Country.  The albergue there was so nice and we shared the room with 8 other people, a young American couple, both seminary students, and 6 jovial French folks, all seemed in their 60¨s. One man told me he was 68.    Oddly enough, I felt more of a sense of privacy sharing a dorm room with 8 other people (besides Tom)  than I did in our little room in St. Jean that we shared with two other people. I think this is because the 10-bed room in Valcarlos was so big that we had more space between us all, but mostly because of improved bathroom situ.  In Valcarlos  we shared 2 showers, two potties and 4 sinks among the 10 of us.  In St. Jean there were 2 showers, 2 sinks, and 1 potty for 16 of us!  My impression so far is that the quality of albergue life will be determined by the person-to-commode ratio.  We had dinner on the terrace of a little restaurant in the town.  We had the fixed-price meal: for 12.50 euros each (about $18 - that included tax and tip)  we had a huge salad nicoise ( made with tuna and hard-boiled eggs) that would have been more than enough for dinner, followed by the main course, a filet of pork for me and for Tom a local fish dish made with tomatoes and peppers and toped with a sunny side egg.  The dessert was a flan with whipped cream.  Dinner also included a basket of fresh bread and a carafe of wine for Tom and for me  - what else? Diet coke.  The waitress asked us how many people were staying in the albergue and seemed concerned that there were only ten.  It´s too bad that the low road gets  blown off or dissed by all the pilgrim guidebooks so that few pilgrims pass through the town of Valcarlos.  This town could sure use the pilgrim business and certainly deserves it.