St. Jean to Roncevalles

I have made the journey over the French Pyrenees to Roncevalles!  I did it in two day, stopping halfway up the mountains at an albergue(hostel) in Orrison.  It was interesting sleeping with four other guys in a little room. lol...The place was clean and the food was fair, so no complaints from this pilgrim.  The jourey up the mountain was very hard and very steep.  It really took all of my being to push on.  But I did it!  My rest that night was a good one and I was ready to charge to the top the next morning.  I would also be walking almost twice as far and I did the day before.  The views we so breathtaking I could not believe such beauty existed.  Although the road was steep, I was filled with excitement as I took each step.   It was Pentecost Sunday and I was definitely filled with the Spirit!!  It did not seem as tough as the day before for some reason.  Perhaps I was more accustomed to the climbing. At the top it was clear and I could see Roncevalles in the distance.  There were still patches of snow all around us, but the weather was perfect.  I would say around 70 degrees farenheit, sunny, with a slight cooling breeze, just when I needed it.  It was a close to heaven as I can imagine!  Against everyone´s warnings, I chose to talk the dirt path through the beautiful Birch forrest.  Apparrently it is the largest Birch forrest in Europe.  All the other pilgrims took the road.  (how boring is that?)  So a nice Japonese woman (70 yrs. old) wanted to walk with me.  She was a little frightened, but came along and trusted me. She would say, ¨Joni you have much courage.¨ lol...little did she know, I just didn´t know better.  It was the right decision, it was a beautiful path.  We walked for miles, all down a very steep incline under a canopy of birch trees.  We never saw direct sunlight, and the leaves on the path were two feet deep.  At times we had difficulty finding the path, looking for the familiar yellow arrow that indicated the Camino, but we did it!  We arrived at the bottom, at almost the same time as others, who left before us on the paved road.  They could not believe we went through the forrest and they were all a bit envious!  haha!  I don´t want to miss a thing!  A beautiful hotel, ¨La Posada¨was waiting for me to relax.  I had a big Heineken beer to celebrate with my new friends, then off to sleep for the next day´s journey.  God is so good!