Europe Archives

Camino del Norte – Stage 15. Comillas to Pendueles. We are still moving forward in Spain

Posted on April 27, 2025April 27, 2025 by mewalsh1

We left our alburgue with less sleep than we would have liked. While the albergue was clean and organized, the beds were close together and the top bunks were quite high. The bunks all had curtains, outlets and their own light which was nice, but I was pretty warm up near the ceiling and felt a little claustrophobic. We had the included breakfast of toast and jam with coffee and headed out. The town was still quiet at 8:00 am when we left and it was a pretty walk out of town.

We passed numerous beaches on our way and the only people in the water were of course surfers. I didn’t realize there was such a strong surfer culture in northern Spain.

As usual when hiking on the coast of northern Spain, we seemed to always be walking uphill – even near the ocean. We hiked up hill for quite a way and as we reached the top, the most amazing views spread before us. The snow covered Picos de Europa was on the left, a beautiful village was in front of us in the distance and magnificent views of the Atlantic Ocean were on our right. I truly couldn’t believe the view and wondered why I had never heard of this place. I took a lot of photos but they don’t do it justice. John called it is “wow” moment. The most amazing thing was that cows were grazing on this beautiful land and there were no people around. And no high-rise hotels. I’m sure it is busier in the summer. But still….

San Vincente de a Barquera in the distance

We could see the medieval church of San Vincente de a Barquera in the distance for quite a while – for at least 5 k We finally crossed the bridge into the city, took a requisite Camino photo and stopped for a coffee and tortilla. We saw several friends from the hostel the night before in town. They are much quicker walkers than us.

San Vincent’s de la Barquera in the distance

We soon left Cantabria and entered the Asturias region. We hiked inland for a time thru the forest but eventually made our way back to the coast. We came to an intersection where we could choose to walk for a time along the road or choose the coastal route. We chose coastal. The trail as t marked but we could see the path crossing cow pasture and running along cliffs near the coast. We could see that a couple we met from Hungry earlier stopped at the same intersection but they chose the road. The scenery again was beautiful. We did lose the path a couple times – I think because it’s early in season and grass had overgrown sections. It was a bit scary at times as there was a sharp drop to the ocean on one side and thorns and large cows to the left. At one point, we were not sure how we would get thru one of the gates as there were several cows in the way. They seem quite docile but they are very large and there was no where to go on the right but down a cliff. But as we got closer they let us pass by without a problem. I have decided I really like dairy cows. 😊. The mother cows take such good care of the little ones.

Our albergue for the night, Aves de Paso

we arrived a little before they opened. John decided on a siesta while I went to check out the village of Pedentues.

Interesting rock just outside our albergue

Ruins of Indiano house. These were lavish houses built by Spaniards who sailed to the new world and made money in the Americas, especially Cuba. Many are still lived in today and are found in the Asturias region. Most had at least one large palm tree in front and were surrounded by walls and gates.

The albergue was the best we stayed in so far. There were only 11 beds and it had such a welcome vibe. They did a couple community loads of laundry for us. We were allowed to wash clothes worn that day. It is always nice to have laundry done by machine. We had a delicious community meal with new friends from Hungry, Argentina, Italy, Barcelona, Japan, Michigan, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and of course Germany. At dinner we received notes of encouragement written by pilgrims there the day before. Of course we paid it forward by writing out own notes to pilgrims coming the next day. The albergue was donativo which means you pay what you can for services offered.
it was a special experience and we slept well.

Delicious vegetarian supper with local wine

Messages of encouragement from other pilgrims.

Camino del Norte – Stage 13. Boo to Santillana del Mar

Posted on April 23, 2025April 23, 2025 by mewalsh1

516 more kilometers till we reach Santiago de Compestela

We left Boo after a quick cup of cafe con leche with plans to stop on the way for a tortilla. In order to cross the Pas River we had to take the train one stop as pedestrians are not allowed to cross the railroad bridge. The train is free for pilgrims to ride one stop. Since we had a long day of walking ahead and it was raining, we decided to stay on the train an additional two stops.

John has lost weight on our trip so far. He can’t tighten his belt any further 😊

We had to walk by a large chemical plant for at least 3 k. It it was called Solvay and they produce soda ash. It was an huge plant. Apparently they have 9000 employees world wide. We walked by their employee housing , a school etc. It wasn’t the most scenic part of the day but it was interesting. It started raining soon after we left Boo but it was a soft rain and we knew it wouldn’t last the whole day.

After walking another 15 k through rolling countryside, we made our way into the historic town of Santillana Del Mar.

Santillana Del Mar is a medieval town that grew up around the Collegiate Church of Santa Juliana. It is known as one of the prettiest towns in Spain and it really is beautiful. Because of its beauty it is on many tourist bus stops in northern Spain and has many tourists around town during the day. In the evening when tour busses leave, it is much more quiet. It is also very close to the Altamira Caves, which are home to some of the oldest and best preserved prehistoric art drawings in the world. We didn’t go there but it sounds pretty cool.

Hospedaje Maria Jesus – our pension for the night

We stayed in a cute pension owned by a wonderful hostess named Maria Jesus. It was a spotless room and very comfortable. After doing our usual chores (laundry) we headed out to explore. We ran into Pao from Taiwan who was also staying in town. I was hoping to buy a pair of socks, as I left my extra pair on the line at the last albergue. We saw a crowd of people heading to the church and we joined them thinking it was now open and we could get a look inside. When we got to the door we found out it was a funeral service. We had seen posters of a service but I hadn’t noticed the date. We have passed thru several towns were flyers are posted announcing funeral service for someone who has passed away. We didn’t want to wait around for 8.00 pm when the restaurants opened so we had a pizza at a place that closed at 6:00. It was delicious. I think we are eating fewer meals while here after walking all day, but when we do eat we are hungry. Maria Jesus provided a teapot and we had a cup of herbal tea and went to sleep. It was a nice day in a special town.

Camino del Norte Stage 10. Laredo to Güemes.

Posted on April 19, 2025April 19, 2025 by mewalsh1

We headed out of Laredo and walked the length of the 5 kilometers beach. It was raining lightly off and on and we saw a beautiful rainbow, which I considered a good omen. At the end of the beach we knew we had to find the boat that ferries pilgrims across the estuary. We followed the arrows to the beach but did not see a dock of any kind. Eventually other pilgrims joined us and soon we saw a small boat coming from the other side. I wasn’t sure if we would have to go in the water to get on but they put ramp down to the beach. A few minutes later we were off to Santana, the city across the water. Santana was smaller than Laredo but seems much more prosperous .

Walking along the Paseo Maritimo and beach for over 4 k

Santana is a lovely town and if I do the camino Norte again; I would choose to stay there instead of Laredo. Outside of town we walked and walked and walked around the El Dueso Prison -one of the largest in Spain with a perimeter of 300,000 square meters and 336 cells. Santons has several beaches and we walked by them as well. There are surfing schools everywhere and there were surfers in the water and on the beach – all wearing wetsuits as it was only in the 60s.

After passing several surfing beaches the trail headed up a steep incline. We were heading over a mountain peninsula that separated several beaches. The climb was steep and difficult as it was wet from the rain earlier that morning. But the cliffside trail had unbelievable views the higher we climbed.

Near the top, Stephanie from Austria and the two Germain girls we met on the boat caught up with us. We all stopped to get our hiking poles out of our packs for the slippery steep walk down. We made it down and started hiking across the very long beaches. Apparently northern Spain has some of the longest sandy beaches in Europe.

We finally made it across the beaches teaming with young surfers attending numerous surfing schools and into the city of Noja where we stopped for a well deserved hamburguesa and fries. There were hundreds of people everywhere, spending the Easter holidays with their families.

After lunch we still had 16 k to go so we trudged on. As we were walking across a field we heard someone yelling to us and it was our old friends (by now) Karls and Mike from Germany. We enjoyed talking with them for a few k but they were stopping at San Miguel for the night. They apparently didn’t sleep well the night before and had also walked 40k the day before. Not to stereotype, but every German we have met have been intense hikers. We had reservation at a Pensión in Guemes 8 more k and trudged on. Soon we started talking to a family from Brussels who were doing 10 days on the Camino. We walked with them off an on until arriving in Güemes were they also were spending the night. One of the nice things about the Camino is talking to others while hiking as it makes the miles or kilometers fly by. Of course our current political situation was a topic of discussion.

Güemes is a very small town with a Pensión and an albergue with two cafes. We had a nice dinner at our Pensión and a great conversation with a couple from France who were basketball fans and knew about Newport, Maine because it is home of Cooper Flagg. The husband told us he attended Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 and saw the Dream Team with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson etc play. John was happy to talk sports with him. Altogether today we walked 33.6 k or 21 miles. Tomorrow will be a shorter day to Santander.

Camino del Norte – Stage 9. Castro Urdailes to Laredo.

Posted on April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 by mewalsh1

We woke up to the wonderful aroma of croissants and bread baking and remembered that our pension was above a bakery. With our mouths watering, we headed down to get a coffee and pastry before heading out. The door to our Pensión was a heavy metal door like the door to a castle and somehow as we were coming back in to the Pensión the door slammed shut on my pinky finger. The pain was excruciating but I cleaned it and put a bandage on and we headed out. The walk out of town was beautiful. We went past the church again, passed an old sardine packaging building (Sardine packaging used to be big industry in town) and walked past the beach. After a while we then headed inland.

it you look closely you will see statue of boys jumping off stones

John so happy to see our German friends from the other night, Karl’s and Mike

John probably giving Karls and Mike a hard time

at one point we were looking ahead and missed the yellow arrow which is the Camino trail marker. We didn’t realize we were going the wrong way when we heard someone calling out to us. It was the two women from Germany we met a couple days before at dinner. We were so grateful as we were heading down hill and would have had to climb all the way back up.

Our two German woman friends who saved the day when we went the wrong way

we made it to our albergue and John wasted no time getting a nap in

While John took a nap, I took a walk around to check out Laredo. It did have a nice beach and an old city section but it was so windy, sand was blowing in my eyes. Overall, Laredo seemed like a tired old city that had seen better days. Like all towns in this part of Spain, restaurants don’t searve supper till 8 and sometimes if you hiked all day that is just too late. We decided to go to the supermacado and we bought pasta sauce and ravioli to cook. The albergue had a great kitchen with lots of cooking utensils. It was also super clean and the owners were very nice. One of our roommates was from Taiwan and was doing the Camino also. Our other roommate was an artist from Dublin. Another young woman from Austria, Stephanie, ate with us. She had just finished medical school and was going to be starting studies in maxillofacial surgery. The other was an artist from Dublin who was just in Spain visiting friends. After dinner i decided to take the bandage off my finger that had been smashed in the door that morning. Stephanie, the medical student upgrade me to go to the farmacia to get antibiotic ointment. I headed to farnacia and the pharmacist looked at my finger and told me I should go to medical clinic. It was hard to bend my finger and it was quite swollen and purple. I headed to clinic which happened to be down the street from aubergue and the physician there did not think I needed an X-ray. The cleaned and bandaged it. I write about this as my visit to clinic was very easy with Google translate. Everyone was very nice. They took my passport info and I did not need to pay any money at the time. I think they will send an invoice but I am sure it will be much less than visit to Urgent Care in US. Tomorrow we will head inland a bit to Güemes.

Camino del Norte – Stage 2. Pasajes de San Juan to San Sebastian

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by mewalsh1

We woke up to the sound of a ships horn looked out the window to see a large barge from Portugal passing by. Breakfast was included in our stay and was delicious. We met a wonderful couple from Switzerland at breakfast and after talking with them for a while about our families, our travels and politics and tariffs that were still on at that point, we realized that when I was in Switzerland two years ago I actually walked by their house. We even found a picture of their house in my photos. While they disliked current American politics, they were quick to assure me that despite their displeasure with the US they didn’t hold the current situation against us. In fact they even invited us to visit them 😊

While this was supposed to be a shorter day, it still was intense with a lot of up’s and downs before our final descent into San Sebastián. We had some views of the city early on but then view was impaired by mountains we were walking over. It was so peaceful and quiet it was hard to believe a big city was just on the other side of the mountain

in order to start our walk today we needed to take a short pedestrian ferry across the harbor to San Pedro. From there we have another big elevation gain and another day of hiking up and down.

Looking at our pension from the other side

On our way down we ran into a couple (Jodi and Matt) from Massachusetts – Matt was grew up in Pittsfield, my home townon Adelaide Ave, and went to Pittsfield High School. He graduated 10 years after me but it was fun reminiscing about growing up there. They were out for a day hike and mini vacation on their way to visit their daughter who was studying in Barcelona. We finally made is down to sea level and it was a bit of a jolt to have the mountain trail we had been on turn into a sidewalk inn a busy city. We stopped for a bite to eat and a coffee and set off to find our pension.

After a shower and washing our clothes, we set out to explore San Sebastián. It is a really cool city with beautiful beaches and it so clean. The food was delicious as well. I definitely will return if I get the chance.

Paris to Saint Jean-du-Luz

Posted on April 9, 2025April 10, 2025 by mewalsh1

Walking thru Streets of Paris early Sunday morning.

We woke up early with only 5 hours sleep to catch an early train to Bayonne. We had a 30 minute walk to the train station. I didn’t realize that it doesn’t get light in Paris until after 7:00 am and it was a little scary walking thru the deserted streets early on a Sunday morning. We made it to the station and had an uneventful 3 hour train ride to Bayonne. We originally planned to walk from Biarritz near Bayonne but we were tired from the late night before so we hopped on another train Guethary and decided to walk from there. This was just to be a 4 hour warm up walk for the Camino. Guethary is a beautiful village and we enjoyed some coffee and lunch at a cafe before heading out on our walk. Our destination was Saint-Jean-du-Luz.

After a beautiful walk for 5 hours along the coast of southern France we finally made it. We were exhausted and very hot and sweaty. This was the longest we walked so far carrying 20 lb backpacks. We tried to pack light but things add up. We brought 2 pair of hiking pants 3 shirts, 3 pair of socks and underwear, toiletries, meds and first aid kitpacks included.

After a rest we headed out to explore Saint-Jean-Luz. It is a dynamic fishing community with a beautiful beach. The town is very proud of the fact that King Louis XIV lived here for a month and was married here. Fun fact. King Louis became king when he was only 5 years old and ruled until his 70s.

King Louis XIV Lived here for 1 month — King Louis XIV lived in this house for one month

Paris! (Day 1)

Posted on April 8, 2025April 10, 2025 by mewalsh1

We planned two days in Paris to recover from our jet lag and to visit some of the sites including Norte Dame Cathedral. The weather was beautiful when we arrived. It was sunny and in the 70s. We took the train from the airport to the Latin Quarter were we had reservations in a small hotel called Hotel Michelet Odéon. Paris is expensive and we were lucky to book this hotel a couple months ago at a great rate. It was perfectly located and it’s fun to walk around the Latin Quarter. After brief nap we headed over to Norte Dame. The cues to get in were long but kept moving. It is possible to make a reservation 2 hours ahead of your visit but we were unable to do this in time. It is free to visit the cathedral and definitely with a visit. According to some of the locals the lines are longer than usual since it has only been open a couple months since the fire.

After visiting Norte Dame, we walked along the Seine for a bit and after a stop at a cafe for dinner, we hit the sack. We felt we adjusted to the 6 hour time change fairly well but were exhausted from our night owl flight with only a couple hours of sleep.

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