Well, as I´m seeing out the hours in an internet cafe in Irun, waiting for the midnight bus to Ribadesella, here´s what it´s like to be on the cusp of returning.
I clocked a few pilgrims at the bus stop at Biarritz airport and chatted to a few as it started to rain. Some going via Bayonne to SJPdP. Me heading to the Norte via Biarritz station - where I chewed the fat in broken French with an young Andorran girl awaiting a lift to Santander to start Norte/primitivo. She´s a scout leader back home, so relishing long stages and hills. There´s an outside chance we may arrive in Santiago at the same time - to me, that would be unsurprising camino if it happened.
I met a Quebecoise on the train and was happy to walk her over the old bridge from Hendaye into Spain and on up to the Albergue. She´s about to start her second camino having completed CF two years ago. She was dog tired from her journey and had fingers crossed that there´d be space in the albergue. Well the main part was full but they have an overflow downstairs so she was very happy with that. A shame that the hospitalero wasn´t the same as the one from March. The former´s gentle gravitas (and white beard) seemed the perfect introduction to a momentous journey. But I was duly fussed over in the nicest possible way by the current hospitalera as I obviously failed to grasp her Spanish directions to the bus station (duly found, of course, without any trouble at all).