I really don’t do well with waking up early.
In order to catch our 12:05 flight to Pamplona from Madrid, we needed to leave Geneva at 7:00 am. This meant getting up at 4:30 a.m.
As a non morning person, this drives me crazy. I am always so anxious that I will oversleep that I don’t sleep at all.
Last night was no exception. I tossed and turned, meditated, prayed, counted sheep and read to no avail.
I finally gave up and decided to get up and get going.
In a reversal of roles, Dan was slow to wake and get going. Once we left my cousin’s place, we walked to the tram for the four stops to the main station to get the train to the airport. This was going to be a short 28 minutes trip. Geneva has an amazing infrastructure and getting to the airport is usually breeze. My cousin assured me it was fool proof. She was right, most fools could get there. However Dan and I struggled a bit to make the change.
I made us get off a the “gare” but I second guessed the way to go. In the span of 10 minutes I managed to take us up to the airport’ train platform, down to the airport bus stop, back out to the tram that had just dropped us off. I also made us take it another stop just to walk back to the train station we had just comed from. In my less than perfect French, I asked several residents of Geneva where was the train to the airport. Only then did we finally find the right platform and got onto the nice new efficient and modern train for the one stop ride to the airport.
This little excercie of find your way ironically reminded me of an episode of the Amazing Race.
As today’s contestants, we tried to find our way in the dark hours prior to sunrise, navigated another language and walked in a few wrong directions prior to finding the right “Way” to go.
The truth about traveling with someone you love is that at one point or another you must ltake into account who they are and how they approach life. Once you do this you must learn to work together, find a compromise and not take it all too personally as you find that you are tired and under the pressure of the moment.
As we finally arrived at Geneva airport we held hands and moved on to the next thing which was getting our flight on time.
Dan was asked to check his bag because it is too big for the overhead compartment. The possibility of it not arriving in Pamplona gives us pause but we know that if it doesn’t arrive we won’t be sad, just roll with it.
As for me, even though I did not have to check my back I was flagged for a pat down from a Swiss security lady that would make the prison guards at Rikkers prison blush. In all my time of traveling, I have never had a patdown so intense that I would have suggested to anyone else that they get a room with the security lady.
When that was over, the Swiss guard was not done with me. They searched my bag so meticulously that every compression bag was pulled out of my pack and opened.
Apparently the issue is that I had the “Santo Remedio” analgesic rubbing pain med outside of a bag. Upon completion of the unpacking of my bag he put it in a nice new zip lock for me. I then asked him if I could have a couple extras for any “just in case” moment in my Camino. He complied and I felt I had walked away a winner.
Our connecting gave us a 3 hour window. This window was spent trying to sleep while Dan diligently checked the monitor for the flight to Pamplona that was not listed.
In the end, we figured out the gate and stood in line. Here are a few other pilgrims on our flight. I spoke to a couple of th older ladies and waited and waited.
Finally although there was no direction from the monitors we figured out our gate and began to board a bus that took us to the plane.
The short 35 minute fligh was easy. Inince again tried to sleep to no avail. As Pamplona came into view I felt my heart race and my eyes wellup with tears. I was back to the Camino and although my feet hurt i was here to complete it. These tears and high emotions stayed with me until I got to the city proper.
We quickly found our hotel in Calle San German. We soon learned that this hotel had a self check in policy. You use your code to go in the door, you then go up a set of stairs and check in using an ATM sort of machine. The hotels is newly renovated but I did not like now having a choice with dealing with a human.
We were given a room on the 4th floor which is really the 6th floor. We schlepped 6 flights of stairs only to find that each landing the hotel had these awesome inspirational quotes like “the only way to fail is to not complete the journey”.
This one in particular was made for me since I had been feeling so anxious the previous night about this whole walk and whether I was crazy about this undertaking with all of its physical challenges.
My feel have been hurting and I have began to feel the familiar pain of Plnatarfacatis on my feet. I have began to stretch diligently and thanks to my PnP girls began some mental work too. After all the mind is the muscle that has to be exercised most.
After settleling in to the hotel we re arranged our bags and took our Geneva and Paris clothes to the post office a short walk away.
We then found a combo lunch dinner although by Spanish standards it is early for dinner since it was about 3:30pm. At this time most of Pamplona old city proper is closed. Here people close for lunch, people go home and business close. People come back and re open around 4:00 pm and dinner is some time at around 9:00 pm. This is my time table for sure.
Our meal consisted of the pilgrim dinner special, grilled chicken breast, grilled peppers, one crouquette, Russian potatoe, French fries.
It was a lot of food and I ate but could not finish the entire thing.
We had some nice cold beers and headed out to explore. We went to the cathedral and passed the Citidel. Which consequently is the oldest in the world. There were to others that were built before but have long since disappeared, making this one the oldest. We toured the inside of the Cathedral which was ornately decorated and filled with treasured dating back to the early 1 century. Yes over 2000 yeas old.
They have done a fantastic job preserving everything and having it on display. The church was wonderfully cool and our tour was delightful. We sat outside by the walls of the ancient city. Looked at the view and then started to explore further. We walked by Hemingway’s old stoping grounds and by this time the city was slowly coming alive. By providence or coincidence we found a small place that advertised food massages with a hot epson salt soak. We did not even think twice but signed up right away. The small quaint spa looked like a combo ancient Roman bath and New Age Yoga studio.
We both had the most amazing foot soaks and massages that had us falling asleep like babies. After the 1/2 respite we bought some provisions for the morning and headed back to the hotel. We arrived around 6:30 ish and repacked. I showered in the most delightful shower and climbed in bed. Took 3 magnesium pills and 2 Advil pm for good measure, plugged in our electronics and promptly went to dream land. This morning I woke up to he quit sounds of doves singing in the distant. The city is beginning to come alive.
Today we walk. One step in front of the other is my goal.
I can’t wait to see that the road holds for us.
Miles walk today 8…
NY RedRose 