We were up again at 6:30am but the restaurant didn’t open until 7:30am. The breakfast was pretty minimal again but at least they had plain yogurt. When we were leaving our waiter from last night told us the Hotel Cret from Bourg St. Pierre wanted us to call, which we did. We were told we hadn’t paid for the wine at dinner. I told him the lady had said it was included, but he just laughed. Too good to be true I guess. However, we paid 11 British pounds each for the dinners which works out to about $22 Cdn, so maybe you wouldn’d think wine would be included.
We left at 8:15am, it was raining lightly, and we started the massive descent down the Alps on the Italian side. In total today we walked 15.9km, descending 1,537 meters and ascending 447 meters. We saw the German pilgrim (Louis) again, who was walking on the road. We were walking on an old Roman roadroad
and I was marveling on walking on an ancient road that thousands of pilgrims had trod over the centuries, in addition to Roman and other armies. The landscape reminded me a bit of Iceland with all the rock. It was beautiful. We went through Saint Remy and stopped for coffee. Beautiful stone buildings. Most of the rest of the day we walked through forest, along a stream, with cows and sheep all about. We didn’t go the way our instructions said but rather the way the yellow arrows pointed and the way the German pilgrim went (who we kept leapfrogging depending on who needed to put on/take off their raincoat). In the end we arrived in Etroubles, but on the wrong side of the stream. When we found our hotel, it had a sign up saying the bar, the restaurant, and the hotel was closed today. We got there at 1pm and there were signs everywhere in town saying closed from 12:30 to until between 2pm to 4pm. We sat on a bench at the hotel and had some bread and peanut butter until 2pm when the information centre opened. The information guy called all over and determined our reservation had been changed to Hotel Bellevue in Gignod. The proprietor from there came to pick us up in Etroubles and there ensued no end of conversations getting the delivery of our bags, our dinner, etc. etc. organized. In the end it seems we have paid 22 British pounds today for a pizza for dinner.
The German pilgrim showed up this evening at our hotel and must have thought we walked here too (9km from Estroubles). We had dinner together, and will probably not see him again until possibly Rome as he goes further than us tomorrow, and we go back to Estroubles to walk to Aosta tomorrow. In spite of this it seems we will all be in Rome around the same date.
This hotel doesn’t seem as good as where we were supposed to stay, but the view totally makes up for it.
It is magnificent, and much more importantly, we are very grateful for the opportunity to have dinner with the German pilgrim.
Will you learn to speak German with your pilgrim friend by the time you get to Rome?
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ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos! Walking those ancient roadways through the Alps must be awe-inspiring. You've done a good job of enticing us to walk a little with you, albeit virtually. Be well! xo
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