The Humble Walker

After a restful sleep and a coffee we headed out. Today will be a longer day – we are headed to Santander – about 27 k away.

Soon after we left our pension, we saw Pao from Taiwan and Alex from France who we had stayed with a couple nights earlier. They had spent the night at the Albergue la cabana del Abuel Peurto. They said it was a great communal experience and would recommend if we return. We walked on and stopped at a cute town called Galizano where we stopped for a delicious tortilla and coffee. Galizano is near the beach and the Camino left town and headed out to the beach.

As we walked uphill (of course) toward the beach, came across Pablo who was out walking his dog. I asked about the mountains in the distance and he named them all for me. The Picos Europa were in the distance and covered with snow. He asked where we were from and when we said Maine in US, he told us he heard it I was very cold there. His nephew has been working in Maine and wrote to him about the cold winters. His nephew is working on the CMP pipeline for Avangrid, the Spanish parent company of CMP.

Our walk soon climbed up the cliffs near the beach and was simply breathtaking. We passed another Laredo Beach and continued walking. At one point we saw Santander, our destination in the far distance. Y

At one point we again heard someone calling out. We turned and of course our two German grounds Karls and Mike caught up with us. It was great to see them again.

We could see the town of Somo in the distance and at some point had to once again walk on the beach. We had to take our shoes off to cross a tidal inlet and the water felt so good on our hot and tired feet . We stopped at a rock to put our shoes back on and had a nice conversation with Patrice from Madrid who lived in San Francisco for several years. Finally we reached Somo and after a well deserved cafe con leche, we headed they town to catch the ferry across the Mira Estuary to Santander.

We woke up woke up sore and aching and decided to take a bus for part of the way to our next destination Castro Urdiales. I had read the first several hours went thru the industrial outskirts of Bilbao and were not very scenic. We were looking forward to getting back into the countryside. Castro Urdiales is a city but much smaller than Bilbao. It had a nice old town. The big industries are fishing and anchovy packing as well as tourism. We are no longer in the Basque Country but now in Cantabria.

Castro Urdiales was first settled by the Romans and still has a medieval Roman bridge. The city stands over the Roman colony of Flaviobriga under the emperor Vaspacian. They are doing some at archaeological work in town with building remnants from the Roman city. Near the Roman bridge is the 13th century gothic church The Church of St Mary of the Assumption and a castle lighthouse from the 13th century.

We checked into our pension and set out to explore. We walked up to the church and out on the breakwater. The town is on the Cantabria Sea and later in the afternoon we had some rain and the some of the waves waves were crashing over the breakwater.

we decided on pasta for supper and after snort walk around town decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we head to Laredo.

We woke at 6:30 with the sound of bugle Calvery cry from one of our roommate’s phones. He is from Spain but loves the American west. After a breakfast of yogurt , granola and toast we left the Albergue Casiero Pozuenta around 8:00. It had stopped raining but we were still walking in a misty cloud for a while. The scenery was beautiful once the clouds and fog cleared. Once again we walked up and up and up. Every time we thought we were at the top we turned a corner and walked up again.

we finally reached the top and started downhill. Unfortunately we had a lot of mud to contend with going down from yesterday’s rain. We were very glad we had our poles as it was quite slippery.

We finally made it down to a town called Larrabetzu. We passed a lot of graffiti and signs calling for basque independence and the liberation of basque resistance members currently imprisoned. Apparently, this town, not too far from Bilbao, the Basque capital, is one of the most outspoken villages in the Basque fight for independence. The hills around here are full of trenches and bunkers that were designed to defend against the capture of Bilbao by the fascists in 1936. They were unsuccessful.

We were exhausted from our muddy climb down the mountain and decided to take a bus the last 9 kilometers into Balbao. This would also give us more time to explore the city.

After the quiet rural walks of the last couple days, Bilbao was a bit of a shock to our system. We walked out of the metro station to a chaotic and noisy but vibrant city. I was trying to find our location on the map on my phone but the streets were so narrow and buildings so high it was difficult. Out of the chaos an older man came over to us, and in broken English asked if he could be of assistance. He gave us a quick low down on places to see. He also warned about the many pick pocketers. He suggested a paper map as well. 😀. We thanked him and finally found our Pensión for the night which was in a great location just off the busy Plaza Nueva.

After a quick rest and a bite to eat, we headed out to explore. We headed a cross the river and walked to the impressive Guggenheim Museum. It was closed but we enjoyed walking around the outside of the strangely shaped building. We then went to one of the oldest cafes in Bilbao as recommended by out elderly friend. The interior was done in tiles. We then visited the cathedral where we were able get our compestella stamped. We then had a delicious dinner of pintos at the plaza Nutella and called it a night. We were exhausted

We headed out today and started walking up and down hills. It was a beautiful walk- everything was so green and lush and always in the distance we can see the sea.

We had reservations at an agriturismo and were greeted by the sound of roosters. As often is the case in rural areas in the Basque countryside, the owner of the Pensión did not speak any English. But with Google translate and hand gestures we did fine. We had a delicious dinner with some women Fri women from Germany and a couple from London. I also had a nice conversation about grandchildren with a woman from France as we shared pictures of each others grandchildren. Our lodging was just outside Deba and it was very quiet and peaceful. We had the best night sleep of our trip so far. Tomorrow we head away from the coast for a couple of days until we reach Bilbao.

We ate breakfast on the beach in San Sebastián and then started our long climb out of the city. I never realized the coast of Spain was so mountainous.

we hiked all day and at a well derserved rest; we met up with a young Germain hiker who was just trying out s couple stages of the Camino while here on a business trip. We also met up with a French couple well into their 70s who were an inspiration They had full backpacks and were much faster than us. I am hoping we will still be hiking in another 10 years like them.

we finally came to the town of Orio where we decided to hop on a train for the last 7 kilometers We were exhausted and hot. Zarautz is a surfing town and there were a couple surfers in the water. We checked into our pensionwaled around town and got pizza for supper. We were ready to sleep.

After breakfast, we headed up to Santuario de Guadeloupe where we met up with the Camino from Irun. It was a steep climb up to the church which was built in the 16th century and is home of the black virgin found on the hillside by two children.

From the Santuario we had two choices – the “official” Camino route or the Purgatorio Route which is much steeper and goes along the ridge line to a height of 645 meters at the peak of Mount Jaizkibel. I had read the views this way were spectacular so this was the route we chose – and very very glad we did. While it wasn’t much steeper than our hikes in the white mountains’ there were a lot of ups and downs and it was more difficult with our packs. The views were stunning every way we looked.

We were very happy to finally walk into Pasajes de San Juan after a few wrong terns. This part of the Camino has several variations and sometimes they aren’t as well marked with the traditional yellow arrows. John and I got into the spirit of the Camino with the earrings we chose to wear for our trip 😊

We did our nightly laundry, took showers, and then headed out to find the one bar (by bar I mean restaurant) 😊 that was open before 7:30 pm and had an early dinner. Tomorrow we head to San Sebastián!