Norte – Day 1 Travel – Hondaribia

Today was a long travel day. It started with a direct 10 hour flight from Seattle to Paris. We then had a 7 1/2 hour layover in Paris followed by a 1.5 hour flight to Biarritz France. Next we added a 35 minute taxi ride to Hondaribia Spain. All in, I think we have had maybe 4 hours sleep in 10 minute increments.

The Paris Airport was hot and humid… 80 degrees F. One thing I learned on my last trip to Europe is that their definition of “air conditoning” is much different than that of the USA.

When we landed in Biarritz we were met with rain. We had planned on perhaps taking a bus to Irun, but we were so tired from traveling, we gave in and took a taxi when one presented itself while we were waiting for the bus. It was an expensive but wise choice as the taxi trip saved us another hour dealing with the bus. According to our taxi driver, it’s been raining 5 months straight which is unusual as May and June are generally nice. We are hopeful that perhaps the weather may improve. One can hope.

Hondaribia is a beautiful town with a great pedestrian only street lined with quaint shops a restaurants. We are a bit disappointed that we arrived later in the day, as our time will be limted to explore the city. (We did manage to see a bit of it in the moring on our way out to the Camino.)

The plane to Biarritz had quite a few Camino Pilgrims. We met a lady from Melbourne Australia. She was excited to start her journey, but wisely is taking 3 days to acclimate having spent 40+ hours of traveling, I can’t say I blame her.

We enjoyed a few Tapa’s and Pincho’s for dinner and were able to gather some fruit and bread for our lunch… We turned in early to catch up on the sleep we missed with the time change. Tomorrow our Camino Norte begins…