Camino Photo of the Day: First Family

We stayed in Saint-Jean at a pilgrim hostel named Beilari. You must reserve the night well in advance, and you must eat a communal dinner there with your fellow pilgrims. Our genial host Joseph made sure that we felt very welcome – our bunks even had mints on the pillows!

Date: 29 March 2016
Place: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (France)

This photo was taken following dinner. It contains all of the pilgrims staying at Beilari that night – Americans, Germans, Danes, Dutch, and even one Spaniard from Extramadura. This is our first Camino family of our 2016 pilgrimage.

Some we would see again over the next few days – and one, a German named Thomas, we would meet again in Santiago six weeks later. Many, however, we would never meet again.

Fun fact: Francine is wearing a mantilla around her neck as a scarf, because we got back from evening Mass just in time to help set up for dinner.