Arrival at St. Jean and buying touristy things

Below is a photo of us outside the El Camino check in office in St. Jean, France and a scallop sheĺl marking the path that all pilgramages are supposed to follow.  Saint James is the reason the El Camino all started in the first place (El Camino de Santiago = The Way of Saint James in spanish).  Spain is where James went when all of the Apostles split up to go spread the word about Jesus and his teachings.  When James died, his disciples supposedly brought his body to Northwestern Spain, where he had done most of his teaching, to be buried.  Nothing much was made of it until the late 800's, when a tomb was discovered and a Bishop declared that it was the tomb of Saint James.  Since that time, people have been making pilgramages to the city of Santiago de Compestella to pay homage to Saint James, whose relics are in a huge church in the middle of that city.  

Nowadays, a little over 200,000 people walk some portion of the El Camino every year.  There are actually many different paths leading to Santiago de Compestella.  The path that we will be taking is called the French Way, as it starts in St. Jean Pied de Port, near Biaritz, France.  The French Way is the most common and popular route, and is the route that Martin Sheen uses in the movie The Way (which is how we got introduced to and were inspired to go on the Camino de Santiago).  It will be 33 days of hiking covering roughly 480 miles, which translates to 14.5 miles per day.  Each day will vary, though, with the shortest day being roughly 12 miles and the longest day 19 miles.

One of the reasons we are taking this trip is because everyone is supposed to be so friendly ànd helpful along the journey, and we found that to be true on the first day.  At the airport, we found 2 other people who were also going to St.Jean and they agreed to split the cab ride (which would have cost us $135 if we paid for the whole thing ourselves).  The woman, who was from New Hampshire, had done the trip before, so once we arrived at St. Jean, she was able to take us straight to the  check in location.  We've also met people from New York, Washington state, Australia and Austria, so it appears it will be the fun, cultural experience we were looking forward to.