Welcome to France–Tuesday, May 9

We woke up at the YHA Hostel in London this morning to the sounds of Karen packing up her stuff. George and I went down and had a cup of coffee with her while Pam took a shower. Then we all went back to our room to say goodbye.

After Karen took off, we got down to the business of going through our crap and throwing stuff out. We managed to reduce the amount of stuff we’ve brought with us through the trash bin and sticking some in George’s extra bag to get it to fit in just one smaller bag to check and our carry on.

Now that we were organized, we headed for the train. We stopped for a late breakfast along the way (bagel sandwiches and tea) on the way to the tube. Because George and Pam were there yesterday, they approached it like old pros–they had forgotten they had ever been there, couldn’t remember the last time they had been on a train, and wet themselves.

Actually, we had no problems getting out to Stansted Airport but have no idea why it’s considered a London airport when it’s half way to Scotland. It took us much longer to get there than we had planned and had less than an hour to make our plane by the time we arrived. We got help from a Ryan Air representative that sped us through the check in process and didn’t charge us the 50 Pounds to print our boarding passes.

Once we landed in France, it was a breeze getting through passport control and retrieving our luggage. We were at the information counter trying to get a map so we could walk to the rail station knowing that we had already missed the last train today when a nice young lady came up and asked us if we would like to share a taxi with her and a friend. George was all for this after we found out that it was over 5 miles to the train station. The woman at information said we could catch a train for 1 Euro each which would be cheaper. The bus it was.

George picked up the fare for all five of us. On the bus, we all introduced ourselves. We talked with Shaun & Megan on the bus ride. Megan just graduated with her Bachelors and is taking a year off to travel before starting medical school. Shaun is already a bit of a world traveler and is doing the Camino because he’s taking it as a personal challenge for growth. As an added bonus, Megan speaks a bit of French since she spent some time here as an exchange student in high school.

When the bus dropped us off at the station, we just all kind of kept together trying to figure out where we were going to stay tonight. I guess we were all hoping for the magic of the Camino to show itself right from the start and it did. After checking out a few overpriced hotels, Megan found an apartment that would accommodate all of us for the night for a very reasonable 109 Euro ($115). We went up to check it out thinking that it was a bedroom and couch only to find it was a four bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. We dropped our bags and went back down to pay.

Now that we had shelter taken care of, food was next on the agenda. While we had been looking for a hotel, Pam had smelled food. There’s a few rules with my wife: 1) don’t wake her up before a full 8 hours of sleep (10 now that she’s not working); 2) don’t rush her in the mornings; and 3) trust her to find good food when she’s hungry. We went to where she thought she had smelled it to only discover it was a bar. The bartender directed us to the restaurant next door where we had our first meal in Europe. The food was fantastic. We had beers, talked, and got to know our first 2 amazing Aussies in France. I am thrilled to death to meet new people and have new experiences. I’m just disappointed that they will be leaving before us tomorrow and won’t remember me. There’s a good chance Pam and George made a good impression though.

We headed back to our place for the night and decided to have one more beer before turning in. It was just too perfect of weather to call it a night. We sat out and had more conversations on the street outside the bar where we are staying. Eventually, Pam got tired, so it’s time to let her start her 10 hours.

Megan took out a deck of cards that she is carrying on this trip. She is planning to put the names of people she meets on the cards in the deck. Since we’ve been playing “Hearts” a lot, she chose the Queen of Spades as our card–the one card you don’t want to get. We’re the first card in the deck.

Megan and Shaun are going to catch the 7:45 train in the morning. It was 10:30 before Pam hit the hay, so we are looking at more of a 10ish train. It was amazing that Shaun and Megan didn’t know each other before tonight nor we them, yet all of our needs coincided and we got to know 2 great young people (hell, at our age, 90% of the world’s population is young people).

We woke up in London this morning and are going to sleep in Bayonne, France. I’m excited.