First days on the Camino

first eight days of hiking from st jean pied de port to Nájera

from Paris to the Pyrenees

The blogger application doesn't work too well on my phone so I may need to annotate these photos once I get to a better computer. In the meantime, here are some photos from Paris to st jean pied du port and then on to Roncesvalles.

some photos from the first few days.

First few days in Paris

We did all of the usual things. We climbed up the stairs of the Eiffel tower, went down into the catacombs, visited the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, wandered around the neighborhoods, went to the Pompidou Center, saw the Rodin museum, went to Morrison's grave at the cemetery Pere LaChasse, and ate at a lot of cafés.

Because we are about to go walk a pilgrimagge, we couldn't bring a lot of stuff with us. We each have a disposable Paris outfit made up of old clothing we no longer want or a cheap article we purchased at goodwill or the inexpensive clothing store. If you see us wearing the same thing for six days, it is because we are.

Rock Creek Park loop and the Elephant Tree

T-minus 2 weeks to departure!

A quick 10.5 mile hike around Rock Creek Park on Friday, May first. We did this same hike a few weeks back with our friend Marcelle, but we failed to blog it. Google says 9.2 miles, but Sherry's GPS map-my-hike app clocked it as 10.5 so we're going with the GPS version. When we did the hike a few weeks back, we foolishly finished the hike in the late afternoon and got stuck in rush hour traffic on a Friday, and when the Rock Creek road is one-way heading into Maryland. This time, we went early and got out of the park before the lanes switched and before traffic got ugly.

Sherry, sporting her new pack. One that actually fits and isn't a men's large. It is made by Mountain Laurel Designs in Roanoke, Va - not far from here. We got it off of eBay, surprisingly. Her total load is now down to below 8 pounds.

We came across the "Elephant Tree" which has a huge burl that is in the shape of an elephant. Not sure if anyone else has ever noticed this, but Sherry pointed it out right away.