Planes, Trains, Automobiles

The only rational effort on this trip was buying the plane tickets, otherwise airfare would have cost a fortune. I shopped months in advance looking for the right combination of dollars spent, time in the air, and dollars spent…yeah, saving money on the flight was a big deal.

Day 0 is actually three days, using the logic that pilgrimage doesn’t really begin until you reach your official starting point, in our case, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrenees.

Day 0-1, bound for Atlanta from San Antonio for some quality time with my brother before heading across the Atlantic.

Day 0-2, the traveling begins in earnest. MARTA from Alpharetta to Hartsfield Airport. A long walk through this massive airport to the international terminal. The 5:00pm KLM flight bound for Barcelona.

Day 0-3 – The rational, planned part of the trip ended at El Prat. Now the fun begins as we try to figure out to get to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port by the end of the day.

• Step 1 was the airport shuttle to the public train station.

Step 2 was the public train station to Barcelona Sants train station. We had to catch a train leaving at 10:00am for Pamplona. We arrived at the Sants station with 5 minutes to spare.

Step 3 was the Renfe High-Speed rail to Zaragoza, the perfect opportunity for a high-quality nap. The coach we rode in was plush. I did crack one eye open at a point in the journey and noted that we were traveling at 318 km/H.

Step 4 was a Renfe Commuter Train from Zaragoza to Pamplona, not nearly as plush and this train stopped about every 10 minutes to let people off and on. We arrived in Pamplona at 4:00pm. That left us with thirty minutes to get across the city and catch the 4:30pm Alsa Bus for France.

Step 5 was Pamplona Public Transportation. The bus we rode got us to the Alsa Station at 4:31pm, we watched our bus pull out of the tunnel and off to the northeast. Undeterred, we found there was another bus leaving for St. Jean at 6:00pm AND a cervecería right across the street from the Station!

Step 6, on the Alsa Bus bound for St. Jean, our travels winding the narrow highways through to Pyrenees towards conclusion! We made it to St. Jean at 7:30pm, beautiful!

Tomorrow, the journey continues at a more natural pace.