14th May

14th May  Bilbao

We Made our way to Bilbao.  It's a very large city and took ages to find our accommodation.  It's freezing here today.  Windy and drizzling, not a particularly nice day at all.  We found a lovely little place for lunch and had BBQ chicken with salad all on the same plate.  It was really lovely.  Fuzz loved it so much he wiped the plate with his bread. Tut tut.

The BIG news today is that  Glen and Mel had a new baby girl.  That's grandchild # 6 for us and the second time they've had a baby while we were on a Camino.  We'll look forward to meeting her when we get home.

We went to the Guggenheim museum and it is very interesting from the outside.  We didn't bother with the exhibits as we were running out of time.  The entrance to the Guggenheim is guarded but a 12m high floral dog.  Very clever and it would be fantastic when it's in flower.

We're getting our wet weather gear ready as tomorrow's forcast is for showers.

13 th May

Ziortaz to Gernika 18k

We woke a bit earlier today after a mostly  restful day yesterday as we wanted to get an early start because we'd been told by our very helpful hotel owner that today would be a very hot day.  We struggled yesterday with only 7k on a hot day so we didn't need much convincing.

We had a few climbs and some downs and not too bad under foot for the most part.  The half day yesterday was a very smart idea as we really felt so much better, especially our feet.   The scenery was very unremarkable as most of the day was spent in the forest by a babbling brook.  It was a shady and cool day after  all and we were grateful for that.

We arrived in Gernika after 5 and a half hours walking feeling quite good.  We found our accommodation, did our chores and headed out to explore the town.  We were in the museum when our German Friend Marcel found us.  We were glad to see him as we had missed him this morning.  Finding, losing and finding people again is very much part of the Camino experience so we are never surprised by these coincidences.   Marcel has finished his Camino for the moment and we wished him well.  It was lovely to meet him and share this part of our journey with him. 

We only saw a few other pilgrims today.  This is really very quiet and that's good.

We're tired but good and wondering what tomorrow will bring.

12th May

Markina to Ziortza 7k

What a fantastic end to yesterday. We truly are part of the Camino now.  We hadn't long arrived at our accommodation before we found our new German friend Marcel was staying there too.  We were happy to see him as he was struggling badly earlier with a sore knee.
After two days on the Camino without
hardly seeing another pilgrim until yesterday and now all of a sudden 'Boom'
Now we feel we really are, pilgrims once again.  Dinner shared around a table with people from various nations communicating and enjoy each others company.  We had dinner with Marcel and the only other people staying at our accommodation tonight, a lovely French couple whose pilgrimage is unfortunately over due to a very nasty ankle injury. It's wonderful that 5 people,, strangers in fact,can sit around a table, share a meal and converse in 4 different languages.  That's the Camino.

We decided to only do 7k today as we're exhausted from all the climbing of the last few days and our feet really need a break.  The walk to the Monastery at Ziortza was tough.  I'm glad we only did 7k today  as I don't think I had another 1k in me. We sat in the shade of the Monastery  for a while then found our accommodation where we are currently relaxing having a cleansing ale. 

10th May Zarautz to Deba story

Zarautz - Deba 24 k

There was a visual feast around every bend for the first part of today and the going was slow as we had to keep stopping to admire the view and take photos.   The photos don't do justice to how fantastic the views were.

After a while we headed away from the sea.   We traveled  over some country lanes and some rocky paths that were tough underfoot and when we weren't in the forest we had country scenes until we headed back towards the sea.  Up and down all day we didn't seem to have any flat at all today and finally a brutal uphill unending climb before an equally brutal unending downhill finally bringing us to Deba.  We're exhausted and our feet sore with a few blisters.  We'll sleep well tonight.

11th May

Deba to Markina 23 k

We headed out into a very misty morn.  Crisp and cool and that was very welcome after the heat of yesterday.  But....it wasn't to be a comfortable day.  We climbed and climbed and descended and climbed and on and on in the forest.  Some naughty people had played with the waymarkers but we sussed that out and it wasn't long before we happened along some Canadians going back the way we had come due to the markings.  After a conference they agreed to come in our direction which turned out ok.  We walked along with Gordo and Ed from Vancouver for a while and we  looked forward to finding  a taverna I'd seen mentioned in the guidebook as we were getting hungry.  The guide book said the taverna had erratic opening hours.  I mentioned this to our new Canadian friends and wondered at the strange faces they looked at me with.  Hmm!....odd I thought.  We worked out they thought I'd said erotic hours.  We all had a good laugh at that and so set about looking for the erotic taverna.   Once found we had the best bacon bocadillo we've ever eaten.  Gordo and Ed went on and we chatted to our young German friend Marcel who had stopped at the erotic taverna and we walked on with him for quite a while.  He and Fuzz climbed the mountain like a pair of mountain goats chatting all the while about soccer.  I struggled on behind them getting further and further back willing my lungs to co operate on this lung busting climb.  Eventually we came to a point that Fuzz and I needed to rest and Marcel continued on.  It was so great to meet and chat with other pilgrims.  This is the first day that we have met any other pilgrims so far and we got the real sense of the Camino for the first time today.  It is now the 'Camino' for us not just a long walking holiday across Spain.  We have arrived!  Viva el Camino.

10th May photos

9th May

San Sebastian - Zarautz 9th May

22 km or there abouts

My backpack finally arrived at midday I quickly reorganized its contents and we started out at 12.45.  Very late to start walking but it felt great to finally be on our way. Camino de Santiago here we come!!

We started out along the beach then turned off at the end, through a little park, some streets and up and up some more there were lots of stairs.  We walked along country lanes then on rocky trails through forest.  Up and down with not a lot of flat and occasional glimpses of the sea and lovely mountain views.

It didn't take too long for our feet to start complaining and fatigue to set in.  We're under trained for this Camino due to various reasons so we'll just have to go steady and get fit along the way. We we're lucky that it was very comfortable walking weather being overcast and fresh helped a lot.

We finally arrived in Zarautz a gorgeous seaside town. The old part of town where we're staying was already packed with families enjoying the evening and eating pinchos in the many bars and restaurants.  After we got cleaned up and organized we headed out for few pinchos before we had a very nice dinner.  All the bars have lots of plates temptingly arranged and some beautifully decorated.  So many to choose from.  Dinner isn't served until at least 8 30 and we gobbled down another very nice meal and headed home.  It won't take long to fall asleep tonight as we're exhausted.