You may have noticed that there is a counter on this blog steadily ticking down to another adventure. Not long now before I fly off to France to meet peregrina extraordinaire Colleen, of Are We There Yet? blog fame. We will spend a day walking, lunching, no doubt talking a lot about caminos past and present, and then we go down to St Jean Pied de Port to start walking together to Logroño, before I continue to Burgos. Colleen and I have known each other online for years and I think we probably know each other’s packing lists off by heart, but we have never actually met face to face or walked together. We have been close to bumping into each other a few times but it just never happened – until now.
I haven’t been back to St Jean since I started on my long walk in 2012, mainly because I fell totally and madly in love with the western and Galician part of the camino, but I remember the breathtaking views especially in the first couple of days.
I am very much looking forward to going back, and am very glad we have beds at the albergue Orisson so I don’t have to go all the way to Roncesvalles in one go – not sure my knees would approve. Fingers crossed we get the weather so we can sit on the decking outside Orisson just enjoying the view and being among the excited pilgrims!
We have already planned out our stages and have now moved on to the much more interesting task of planning the fun stuff, like where to eat in Pamplona and which bars to visit in the famous Calle Laurel tapas area of Logroño, and in my case also taking a day in lovely Burgos to visit the Museum of Human Evolution with the finds from nearby Atapuerca – finally! – and the stunning cathedral.
Any tips, suggestions and advice on things to see, eat and do between St Jean and Burgos very much appreciated!
Somewhere Slowly 
Oh it’s a shame you are not walking some of the meseta 😉 , just kidding. We shall be walking different paths at the same time, but lets keep in touch!
The more flexible you can make your trek, the better, I think.
This is a valid point and mostly true, but not an absolute, I think. When I left St Jean in 2012 we had only one booking, and that was at Orisson. The rest, though some were obvious stops like Roncesvalles, we were flexible about. We didn’t follow the ‘Brierley stages’, we took each day as it came; our shortest day was 2km and the longest 32. But other times a bit of planning goes a long way, and after so many walks I feel pretty confident I know how much I want to or can do in a day, and which places I want to end up at to visit or even revisit a place, albergue, restaurant etc. This time, because we will be walking in company, stages have been planned. This does not mean it will turn out like that … time will tell!