Roncevalles

      After our night in Orisson, it was time to do our first arduous day: the hike across the Pyranees into Spain, to the small town of Roncevalles, a pilgrimage center since medieval times with a monastic albergue and 25 inhabitants. After a disappointing breakfast of literally toast and jam, we embarked on what turned out to be a chilly, rainy, exhausting 18 km day. 8 hours of walking through buffeting cold mist and rain, with no views except of the blank whiteness of the cloud around us. 

Some upsides to this misery:

-seeing Basque Shepards standing with their dogs and flocks beside the road, appearing like ghosts out of the mist

-horses high in the mountains with babies at the top of rocky, clay roads

-encountering an emergency pilgrim's shelter just when our hands had nearly frozen to our poles only to discover a merry little party going on inside with a well-tended wood fire in the grate and coffee and tea provided by a mysterious wild man who lived in the woods behind the shelter. He's been there caring for travelers since May "waiting for his girlfriend." He only spoke French and had bright blue, slightly crazy eyes. 

Roncevalles is a charming if shockingly small place, though the albergue is massive. We settled in to our alcove with Stephan the German who ended up being a snorer (grrrr) and then Bilbo ands I left Lauren to rest and went on a tour of the town.

 The church was a magical gothic structure designed to be Notre Dame in miniature, and on the tour we got to go upstairs and see the way it was put together. The original flying buttresses weren't able to withstand the violent winter weather and a new brick facade had to be constructed.

The oldest building in the town was the supposed burial site of Roland's men and is still used as the town's cemetery. Everyone there lives a very long time. Beneath was an ancient Romanesque crypt where you could look down and see skulls. 

After dinner we went to the special pilgrim's mass in the church performed by the priest of Roncevalles, who--due to the town's significance to the pilgrim's route--has equal authority as the bishop of Pamplona. At the end of the service we were given the 11th c pilgrim's blessing and the priests sang for our journey. The priest have the blessing in 7 or 8 languages including Korean. It was very powerful. At the end he raised his white head to look at us and said "please pray for us at Santiago de Compostela." There was not a dry eye.