Day 0 Roncesvalles

The big new here is SNOW! It snowed here last week, so there are mounds of snow around the buildings. The Camino pass over the mountains to St Jean in France is closed due to snow, the pilgrims can still walk, but must use the road along with the cars. The way down the mountain to Pamplona is apparently clear, it is just cloudy and. cold. Upon the recommendation of a friend, I am staying in a lovely old stone hotel, interestingly the room and Pilgrim Dinnrd is only a little more than my cab ride up here from Pamplona.

The journey today: hotel shuttle back to airport, 2 hour bus to Soria, a literal 5 minutes to change buses, then another 2 hours to Pamplona. The buses are clean and modern, as is the bus station. Absolutely no pilgrims around, so I was the only passenger in a 45 minute taxi  ride up the mountains.

Spring is late, the trees are still bare, but the fields are all heavily sprouting with something  thick and green. The country all the way from Madrid is highly agricultural with few villages. My impression  is there are not a lot of people in the northern part of Spain.

View from the bus

Yikes! Snow in the mountains!

 Modern bus

Selfie at the start of the Camino