Author: RebWhite

Portulagette to Castro Urdiales, 13.1 miles

Hotel Sercotel Las Rocas, new, big, clean, restaurante, but didn’t eat there, got a high room facing the ocean. 

A fantastic day! Only thing missing was Rick because he would have loved this day. First, we decided to not walk the whole thing. The first 5 looked like what I did yesterday, kind of commercial, walking in the hills amongst houses. Instead, we took a taxi to the coastal town, Playa La Arena. We started right off on a beautiful walk, then a boardwalk, along the ocean and cove. And it just kept going!

Just gorgeous, again.

Since we’ve come into the Cantabrian area, the gardens have been incredible.

Oh, so curious, we conjectured that the freighters at one point were unloaded here, maybe through a tunnel? And then, sure enough, there was the tunnel. On the left side, just a wee thing from this perspective. Crazy. Clearly, now it’s just a seeming bridge going to…

About 2 or 3 miles shy of the end, I really needed to find a bathroom and place to sit down just for a few minutes. Carol and Matthew were on the move so I sent them off (I knew they’d find lunch and let me know where to go – SO nice) and I sat down at a bar and had my usual CoalaCao. Next to the bar was a plaza, Plaza of the Martyrs, with these old trained beech trees created an arbor for a monument and to lead up to the town building. The monument was so sad, inspired by a painting by David Coma, was to the miners and said:

We try to represent men that are a part of our past, of us. He is the miner with a strong constitution and character, who with his work supports a family. Trapped in history, held in place until his strength abandons him, and the disease overcomes him. That intention that pushes us makes us try different (?) reaches its conclusion in this man from Miono. Trustworthy but defeated, terrified. A memory of ours, that we want to share with others. 

In Bilbao mining fueled the growth of the area, but clearly the mining was as horrible for people here as it was in England, Wales, Appalachia. I’d just never heard about it here.

Then I started off, quickly off the map so retraced my steps, then found myself entering a long tunnel for bikers and pedestrians.

Then I walked into magic, the town Castro-Urdiales. That’s how it felt! Absolutely gorgeous town with a blue bay, green park, clean, really pretty white balustraded promenade and 100’s of people out talking and walking. Really, by the end of the night, between all the happy chatty people, the ancient buildings, the harbor, castle, gigantic church at the very end – it felt like a Spanish Disney. And – our hotel was big, clean and I was able to get a room that was high and faced the ocean and bay. Just completely wonderful. 

Matthew and Carol were waiting at the lunch place, another good meal and then I had the afternoon to clean up, organize, read a bit to get off my feet and then went back out. It was too beautiful to stay in, though it was really pretty just looking out the window. 

I walked through the park, intensely green – and, oh, part of the magic was the sun – to make everything greener, bluer, brighter. 

 Then Carol and Matthew came out and we walked the promenade around to the castle/fort and church. Just crazy crazy that these buildings were constructed 100’s of years ago. Really, people should have just been making do in caves or stone huts. But no. They were building things like these, seen from the promenade.

When I was in Bilbao, the audio tour for the cathedral noted that when they were building the cathedral, the request went out for help and in turn anyone who helped was tax free for the entire duration of the construction. Maybe that’s how they got this done? 

Then we saw a rowing crew go out, staggering under the weight of the boat until they got a grip on it. We later saw them flying through the bay, seriously fast, like the rowers on the river the night before in Portulagette. 

Finally, came back to the room and got to talk to Kaziah so ended the evening with another treat. Showed her the view with FaceTime so that she could see a bit. I would love to come back here with the family, mix of walking and exploring .

Bilbao to Portugalete, 16.7 miles

Today, we’re down to Carol, Matthew and me and we walked separately since we started from different points and probably with different plans. I walked the camino following the MacsAdventure map and they walked the river – all the way! I had no idea that was an option because I didn’t explore. I thought I would do my usual when I’m on my own, quiet for 1-2 hours, then listen to dharma and then when tired and needing motivation, go to music or a fun book. It was raining as I started so had all my gear on and my pack covered. I did do the hour and half in quiet, but the entire time was just walking through and out of Bilbao. It was interesting seeing the town, all the kids walking to school with their parents, people going to work, cafes full. 

The schools here are often in old, incredible buildings:

But – a long time of city walking. 

I found an indoor covered area with a grocery store and pastry and got a pastry, drank my protein shake and kept going. Found another place where I could get a hot chocolate and a bathroom (!) bc the outdoors wasn’t conducive today. 

Finally walked into Portugalete and to the best hotel yet, Gran Hotel Puente Colgante. I couldn’t believe it. Right on the river, the weather was clearing up, and Carol came out to greet me to say they’d already sat down to lunch. So a very nice start to our afternoon in the town. Per usual, Tee Travel had booked us into a good hotel with the worst room, but happily, I was able to upgrade so that I could see the river and the famous suspension bridge. And it was only 13 euros! Turns out Carol and Matthew had done the same thing. 

I had a flash back to our trip to Italy last year and exploring Assisi – with Frances of Assisi and Poor Clare – amazing humans. This building was founded in 1614 by a group of Poor Clare nuns joining a group of religious women from Portugalete. It stayed until 1979 and now this monastery is the Cultural Centre for the town.

I took this photo of a photo because it’s CRAZY. If you look closely, you can see all the men on the top rigging and right at the top touching the bridge while people gather on the walk way of the bridge – they’re completely crazy too – as the boat goes under. I don’t know when this was, but not so long ago because the little sailboat next to the big boat is clearly modern. 

We all walked down to the end of the river to the opening to the Bay of Biscaye. 

Looks like an interesting bridge, but then you realize that it carries a suspended ferry back and forth, allowing big boats (have seen freighters with tugs going by) to go under while allowing pedestrians and up to 6 cars at a time to cross the river. 

Here’s the video of the action, no need to watch to the end, I was just curious – really? Cars coming off too?

Just a chill and relaxed night. I brought a couple of pintxos up to my room and finished my VERY long history blog re Bilbao. 

Walking 8.6 miles exploring Bilbao, a truly wonderful city! I’d love to come back with Rick so he can see. This is a long post because I indulged and put a lot of history – for me to remember.

I popped up awake at 5am. Really? On my day off? Ok. Dawdled, then went down to the lounge area to write up another day on the blog and to wait for Bob and Susan so that I could say goodbye. They went off to catch their plane and it ways another beautiful day – so I went out to see what photos I could capture of the Guggenheim without people around. 

This one shows the idea of a boat stranded on the shore, supposedly a focus of the design (per our boat tour).

Boat again

At 7, this is a very quiet city except for runners and dog walkers. 

I enjoyed the quiet, the views, the weather for a bit and then came back and had a really good breakfast! That’s not my norm because the offerings are usually pretty lean and I’m not that hungry in the morning, but I could make my own pot of decaf, had eggs, couple pieces of cheese and for the first time, my favorite of toast with tomato, oil and salt. So Spain. 

Then I conferred with the front desk guy and a map and started out. There was a funicular within 2 blocks of the hotel that took people up to an entirely different neighborhood at the top of the hill and visitors up to see an incredible view of the city. I was very proud of myself and got in the front car for a full view. It felt way safer than inside the Guggenheim. And it did let me see how big Bilbao is while still contained within the valley. There are about a million inhabitants of the greater area, while central Bilbao is about 350,000. 

I then started wandering to where I was supposed to meet the walking history tour I’d signed up for. Carol and Matthew were going to do a separate exploration on their own using public transport – especially the tram – to see the city in a different way.

I joined the English group with a wonderful guide and I never heard her name. But boy, did she have info. And being a Bilbaoina (her word), she was passionate about her city and the Basque culture. And she talked fast! We walked and talked for 2 full hours and I started dictating to myself so that I could remember a lot. I loved it – so cool. 

So – from here to almost the end, it’s summarizing Bilbao’s history from my notes. 

In 1300 Diego López V de Haro created a charter for Bilbao. He was a very farsighted and canny Lord of Biscaye. At that point, there was a central group of feudal states in the region, basically 5 mountains with 5 valleys and representation from each of the 5 would come together to meet under that tree in Gernika to set policy, agreements, etc. 

The king of Castile in the 1300’s was building alliances through marriages, but was also looking for a safe port to get his goods out and Lord de Haro convinced him that Bilbao would be the choice. Safe, protected river to get the goods out to the sea. De Haro would have a taxation system since everything had to come over one bridge to get to the river and the boats. They worked out a deal and people started coming. 

All merchants had to cross over the one bridge at the top of the river to get their goods weighed, pay a tax and move on to boats going to the port. It was so busy that a consulate was built right next to the bridge and the powers-that-be would sit on their balcony and make sure all was going well. It became such an important commercial city, they had a consulate in Belgium through the 1400-1500’s. Not the norm for a city to have a consulate. 

De Haro also decided that he wanted to make Bilbao an important center and let it be known that if merchants settled in the area, they could live tax free. That worked and a medieval town group up within fortress walls. The wealthy and aristocratic (often the same) were within the walls, fishermen, farmers, were outside. 

The building was in the arenal area – arenal means quicksand or marsh. They had to drain the area to build since it was two rivers coming together to form the estuary and big river. Because the land was so limited, there was only one small park to meet and it was the one place that people of all walks of life might meet up, though there were designated areas for each group within the park. This was true up until the late 1800’s. The whole focus was the iron industry, the steel industry and wool transfer, not on expanding park areas. Our guide said she grew up with smoke and soot, sounds like how Pittsburgh used to be described. 

The train station is a point of pride and dependence – it’s where coal came in since iron and wool were the main products of the area. Built in 1898 and opened in 1902. Right now there are on-going political arguments with Madrid about having a high-speed train come to Bilbao. They’re trying to manage an explosion of tourism, while they want the tourists – a main source of income – they also absolutely want to insure their culture stays true to the Basque as Bilbao is the de facto center of the Basque region. The building on the right side is the conservatives club on going since the 1800’s. Very stuffy, very hard to get into.

As the iron industry grew (second only to Barcelona), the town leaders wanted to make the town much bigger, more sophisticated and they decided to break down the inner city walls and add the neighborhoods of the surrounding villages. They brought in important architects from all over Europe and you can look at the buildings from the late 1800’s and see French, Italian, English architecture influences. 

Flags waving from the balconies reflect the fact that the Bilbao football (soccer) won their first big tournament in 40 years. The whole city went crazy and two months later the banners are still waving. 

The plaza nueva was built in 1864 and was the first place built outside the old city when they decided to break down the walls. They wanted to expand in a significant way and this was the first design – echoing the central squares in Madrid and other great Spanish towns. 

These steps are modeled after the Roman steps. This was the way the Camino came through Bilbao down off the mountain behind the town. The Camino del Norte connects to the Camino Primitivo. That one started in the late 900’s, the Norte started in the late 1200’s. There are 374 steps that wind up to a cathedral above where the Camino pilgrims would stop before coming down into town and into the Cathedral de Santiago, also on this path. It was also on this path that farmers would bring their market goods to town, down a long muddy path straight to the market. In the same place where we ate yesterday. They built these stairs to honor the Camino because it brought trade and money, and opened Bilbao up to the outer world. 

This was also when they built the Cathedral de Santiago to give thanks to the Camino for helping the town so much. Started the building in the 1300s. 

This facade is what’s left of a palace from the 1400-1500’s. The person who lived here would have been of the aristocracy, but they were also in a position to see who came into town, to greet them, welcome them and convince them that this was a great town and it might be worth their while to stay or to at least use this town for most of their trade. 

1983 a massive flood, went above the lintel just below the arches here. The painting was commissioned by the city to help rejuvenate the old town, but because of the mud even more than the water, the old town was destroyed and much of it had to be rebuilt. Since the river is tidal, if there’s a really high tide concurrent with heavy rains and flash flooding, it can be catastrophic, as it was in 1983 and several times over the past centuries. 

The 1983 flood happened almost simultaneously with the end of the iron mines – tapped out and the end of the steel industry, shutting down of the smelting plants, etc. They decided they had to change the town’s income from industry to service/tourism. There must have been some seriously far ahead thinking on the town’s politicians because the decade after the flood is when they commissioned Frank Gehry to design the Guggenheim museum. This museum brought in so many tourists that it helped jumped start the town again.

It seems that the town’s politicians took the example of the late 1800’s to heart. They commissioned famous architect after famous architect to design buildings. When we did our boat tour (noted later) it was basically an architectural tour of Pristker winner after winner designing building after building. As Matthew said, there didn’t seem to be a plan, but with so many gorgeous and interesting buildings, it became cohesive. This is truly a beautiful city. 

Here’s the shield again, at the top of the entry to the Church of St. Nicholas. He is the patron saint for sailors and this shows a desperate scene of widows with drowned husbands and men who’ve lost everything to the sea. The lions holding the shield up are demonstrating the strength and resilience of Bilbaoans who come back after every struggle. 

Cool Michelin star restaurant, Mina. Its entry is the entry into the last active iron mine, closed in the 1980’s. When the mine closed, they then started building on top of it, working their way up to the top of the hill. Someone asked if they weren’t worried about building on top of the mines and the guide said no, the rock is incredibly hard and there are no concerns. Right under the restaurant is water coming out and that’s a mountain stream running down and out from under all the houses. 

This last palace on our tour was the liberal club (versus the conservative club that was next to the train station). Over the door is a replica of the head of the Statue of Liberty. When Franco came in, he dissolved the club and took the place for his own, when he left, it became the library. The conservative club was more concerned about commercial interests and they held onto their building. I went back later to see the library. I’d study here in a second. 

First thing I saw when I walked in was a photo of the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, one of my favorite poets. Killed by the Francoists in Granada shortly after this photo was taken. Learned about him when we were in Granada with the kids years ago.

I then went looking for lunch, found the street the guide said was full of good places to eat, I remembered it because of the puppy fountain where Bilbaons commonly meet.

I walked up and down the street 4 times dithering because I knew my timing was all wrong – 12:30pm. Finally went in a place where people were eating and he said the menu del dia started at 1pm, but I could have one of the first course options. Luckily, one of the options was paella and it looked great – he had big pots of the first courses – all stews and the like. 

Then I went back to the market to find one of those Carolina treats and ran into Carol and Matthew! They were looking for a treat and coffee too, so we joined up and I told them a bit. We decided we wanted to do the boat tour I’d been thinking about and we planned to meet up later.

We listened to a recording on our phone talking about the history and the architecture. It was a fun ride and one note of history explained a wonderful statue by Dora Salazar that both Matthew and I had wondered about. Evidently, the boats that came in from the port were pulled up the last part of the river to the head of Bilbao by towing. And the people who often did the towing were widows who had no other way to earn their money and it was a brutal job. 

The boat tour ended up being a great way to see more of the city and was really an architectural tour. An amazing city with amazing architecture. Kind of astonishing for a city this size, and it seems to have worked as the planners had hoped – this city is booming!

We then went to a place for pintxos that Matthew’s partner had recommended and it was fantastic! Beautiful building, fun people watching and the food was incredibly good. 

Finally, Matthew and Carol sent this Basque gift that they ran into after I left and took the tram down to near my hotel. What a totally great day 🙂

To Bilbao, 10.8 miles

Ok, today was an entirely different experience. Sunny, perfect bit of a breeze, only 7 miles (kept walking in town thus higher mileage) over the mountains and that hill that looked so big turned out to be manageable without a ton of mud. Just a gorgeous hike. Wish Rick could have been with us!

Starting by filling water bottles – fountains are pretty frequent, happily!

We arrived in Bilbao – big city! We followed the camino trail pretty far, but since it tries hard to stick to the original and through parks to be as much as it was, we ended up cutting off and following Matthew and his GPS through the city to get down the hill a bit more easily. That being said it was really downhill within the city. San Francisco has nothing on these city hills. Crazy. Used my poles to try to save my knees. At one point, we took one of those elevators that carry you down the hill. I did NOT like it because it’s way out in the air and then you can see through the front so I just closed my eyes and let my knees give their thanks. And then – we were there! 

First sighting of the Guggenheim, next to the Y and red piece of the bridge:

Per usual, there were wonderful old buildings mixed into the new. We aimed straight for the market on the river for coffee and a few pintxos to hold us until we got to lunch. There hadn’t been any snacks on the way so we were ready. 

Here’s the market, a beautiful building and the first market I’ve been to in an old city that was fully indoors (except a few tables outside) and clean!

It’s the red and white (colors of Bilbao) building on the left next to the bridge. 

Bob, Susan and I walked along the river to our hotel, the Hotel Conde Duque. Good hotel, nice, clean, great staff, nice casual restaurant, sadly the room is on an air shaft. Luckily, I am planning on walking a lot because the city is just beautiful. 

We got cleaned up, started sorting things and then met up (Carol and Matthew were at a different hotel because of later booking for the trip) at the Guggenheim Bilbao museum. Fabulous building by Frank Gehry. I’m going to try to go back tomorrow morning to get some photos without so many people. 

Matthew told us to meet us at the big dog with the flowers in front of the museum. From our hotel, Bob, Susan, and I approached from the back, but every side of the museum is a visual gift so we just kept walking around and up the stairs then found the dog. Then we understood why he thought it was a good meeting place! “Puppy” by Jeff Koons. The flowers were incredible. 

Matthew had made reservations for us for the museum and for lunch in the Bistro in the museum. Totally wonderful meal. I did remember to take a wee video. Hard to convey how interesting, fresh and good the food was. I’m not going to turn into a foodie, but I am definitely appreciating some of the meals we’ve been having.

This gazpacho seemed to have the oddest ingredients – sheep cheese at the bottom, Iberian ham, croutons. Every element was perfect!

In the museum, totally cool exhibits, not a surprise, but it’s like the Guggenheim in NYCity and has open air walk around spaces for each floor and pretty open stairs in between. Or a see-through elevator. I managed to do part of the second floor and then was back on the ground and staying put. But that was totally fine because I loved the exhibits on the first floor. 

This was a small piece of one of the exhibits. I got to walk it more when I came back down to this floor. It was called “The Matter of Time” by Richard Serra. He designed it for this space and used metals for all the pieces. As I remember from the audio tour, it was meant to have the person observe themselves and their reactions in response to walking in the midst, around, through these different tilting spaces. They made me so dizzy! Little kids were running through no problem, but I generally had my hand on a wall when the angles were really pronounced and I was walking through them. Susan said she had the same reaction. The observer observing the observed. Very interesting. 

Here’s another outside statue – that’s me underneath, it was huge!

After the museum, we went back to our rooms and chilled. Read, unpacked to set up for laundry, etc. Tomorrow is a free day! Sadly, Bob and Susan have to leave, but then up to us what we want to do. 

Lazama, 14 miles

Left Hotel Guernica, big, nice, clean, elevator, really decent breakfast and front desk staff really nice. The front desk woman took our photo next to the peregrino (pilgrim) statue before Rick left our group. Yes, that’s her thumb in the corner, but we got the photo!

We walked through Gernika to exit the town, stopping at a few sites on the way that were all marked on the camino, according to the hotel map. 

In town next to the Assembly Hall stands the Tree of Gernika. By ancient tradition, Basques, and indeed other peoples in Medieval Europe, held assemblies under a tree, usually an oak, to discuss matters affecting the community. Starting in the late 1300’s under different trees the democratic assembly would meet with 2 representatives from each district. By 1512, its oak, known as the Gernikako Arbola, became symbolic of the traditional rights of the Basque people as a whole. The Spanish kings would come to swear their commitment to the Basques and kept the peace in this way. The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees (the “Old Tree”) lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Guernica is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health. 

Rick walked with us through the city to see these things and then left before he was covered in mud since he’d just scoured his shoes in order to fly home without tracking a lot of Spain onto the plane. Rick had to leave and we missed having him with us. He’s off to Chicago for meetings and will be back on camino in a few days.

Even the dogs were ready for the rain, on the balcony!

Today ended up being a 14 mile hike instead of 11, and in mist or rain all day, but we were prepared and the rain was very manageable. I did wish I could record the sound, not of birds, but of incredible squelching as our shoes and poles got stuck and had to pull them out! 

First dry, not so bad

Then not so much

A farm by itself, gorgeous

Starting to see embedded Camino shells occasionally

Matthew had been exploring on his phone where we could get lunch when we got in and realized that we should really eat before we went to our hotel, it was another rural casa on the outskirts of the town. We were drying out so we went to the one restaurant that was open and managed to get a table for our group. We were really lucky because we were able to go right in; the restaurant never had an empty table, they turned rapidly. And it definitely filled us up!

Our hotel was lovely, Hotel Rural Matsa, quiet, dark at night (from my room, others had a bit more noise from fellow residents) and the owner made us tea and coffee in the late afternoon. The beds were weird, but I’d repeat if I came this way because it kept us very near the Camino. We all then went to our rooms and snacked on whatever chocolate we had at hand. Realized this the next day when we were comparing notes. Funny response to wanting just a bit of something before bed.

Gernika, 16.5 miles

Gernika history: On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the town was razed to the ground by German aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion, sent by Hitler and by Mussolini’s Aviazione Legionaria to support Franco’s troops. For almost four hours bombs rained down on Guernica in an “experiment” for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars. There were five waves of attacks some almost at the rooftops and many of those killed had mistakenly left air-raid shelters believing that the enemy attacks had ceased.

The bombing of Guernica was deliberately chosen to occur on a Monday (April 26, 1937), because it was known that the Basque people who lived outside of Guernica proper would travel into town for the Market Day, thus affording the pilots of the German and Italian aircraft the opportunity to murder as many people as possible. 

On Tuesday, April 27th, Franco ordered all to lie and declare that the town was bombed by the “reds” and it was a Basque plot. We read this at the Museum of Peace on the outside exhibit of photos: “Justice was never done, but there is no lie that hides the truth forever, because the history of our people is embedded in its collective memory. Having recovered our historical memory, we reveal the truth, we pass on to our descendants the historical moment that our elders lived, and we do justice.” 

Our crew, still in post hike tired mode, next to the Peace Museum on the left with the photos of the city after the bombing next to Carol in the orange.

Until modern times, it had been generally accepted that the number of deaths had been over 1,700, but these numbers are now known to have been exaggerated. Historians now agree that the number of deaths was under 300. However, it is true the 85+% of the dwellings were razed. Astonishing that the air raid shelters did such a remarkable job protecting. For Franco – who’d asked for these towns to be targeted (Irún too) because they supported the Republic and were Basque nationalists – this backfired because it cemented the Basque’s commitment to the Republic and to their own liberation. 

Basque language: I realized I’ve never written about this. It’s a source of great pride to the Basque people, that their language may be the oldest European language. Both our guides in San Sebastián were Basque and spoke about their language. I don’t know why it’s called Basque when that’s totally different from Euskara (their word for their language). Here’s a note from Wikipedia: Basque euskara is the only surviving Paleo-European language spoken in Europe, predating the arrival of speakers of the Indo-European languages that dominate the continent today. Basque is classified as a language isolate, with no relationship to any other language having been established. 

Gorka, our wonderful Pintxo guide in San Sebastián, told us that a Rosetta-stone like discovery of a bronze hand with writing on it proved that Basque was in fact a unique and extremely early written language. Online, I finally found this note: Inscriptions found on a 2000-year-old metal hand may be written in a language related to modern-day Basque. If this interpretation is correct, it could help explain the origins of the Basque language – one of the biggest mysteries in linguistics. Of course, there are scientists who are questioning this, but it’s a big deal here!

Ok, now today’s hike. We all hiked to Gernika from Markina, but Carol and Matthew were in a different hotel and on different timing so we split up for the hike. The rest of us stayed on the MacsAdventure and the Camino signed trails the whole way. It was described as “moderate” whereas yesterday’s hike was described as “moderate-strenuous”. Today was great and it was definitely easier than yesterday in terms of height (today 2500) and distance, but as Bob said, Europe’s “moderate” does not mean the same thing as American “moderate”.   Yesterday, I wrote that we rarely saw any creeks or rivers. But then today, we got to walk along a river for the first mile or more, then creeks for a lot of the rest of the hike. That was wonderful. 

Near the top of the biggest hill was the Monastery of Saint Mary of Zenarruza that was fantastic. You could actually stay there and a sign said they had Baroque concerts. Sadly, we were too early to see it since we left at 7:30 and got up the mountain pretty quickly. The camino went right through it; you can see the arch below:

After we’d moved past, we were surrounded by green, mountain views, mist and clouds. At one point, I stopped and it was silent except for the ringing of the monastery bells, birds and the creek. The sounds are just wonderful on these hikes so far.

Monastery:

I couldn’t get all the sounds together, this is the bird chorus:

Misty scene

Oh, here’s a cultural note that we’ve all been curious about. Can you see the guy in the distance on the hill? He’s weed whacking the ENTIRE hill. Not mowing, not tractor mowing, weed whacking. We have seen people everywhere doing this. Whole hills, sometimes just berms (which makes more sense), but this one was a doozy. They must get so tired.

Bob and Susan

I’m here too:

When I saw Gernika from the mountain, I could see that it was just a small isolated town and so horribly easy to target and repeat target as the notes above described. 

First monument was a statue:

Got into Gernika by 3, quick changed and went to a burger place for lunch. It’s Sunday, most things are closed and this was close to the hotel. Rick has pretty much forsaken his eating norms while we’re here. He’d be crazy hungry if he had to stay vegetarian. But going to the pulled pork sandwich was a big switch up and he said it was wonderful!

We then walked around Gernika, exploring. We knew if we went back to the hotel, we’d never leave again – so walked. Many of the signs, museum, and plaques are about Gernika being a place of peace and connection with all who suffer the impact of bombing and warfare. 

One building left standing, now with repairs showing in different areas was the Iglesia Andra Maria.

Henry Moore’s “Large figure in a shelter” 1985-86. The year he died, amazing. A tribute to trying to find comfort after being bombed. 

Then back to the hotel to repack (every night), shower, set up for tomorrow. Sadly, Rick has to fly to Chicago for work (happily, he loves the work), but then is turning right around and coming back to keep hiking. His feet will be happy to get a break, but we’ve just finally adjusted to jet lag so that’ll be a bit of a readjustment. 

Ixnia to Markina, 18 miles

Ok, today was a big one. We knew it was going to be long and Rick and I wore out at the end. But – it was spectacular. Matthew had found a way through GPS to cut off a few miles from the expected 17 that we were going to do. We all started together, then Carol and Susan continued down to see the town Deba and to walk the coastal path for 1.5 hours. They then caught 2 buses sequentially to get up to Markina, our destination. 

The rest of us turned left into mystery land, trusting Matthew’s enthusiasm and exploring mind. And it was incredible. We were the only ones there (huh, good thing?) and it was definitely on a map so we kept going. We left behind all traffic noise (and people) and walked through the hills. I took a short video trying to see if I could capture the bird song that accompanied us as we walked through a forest. This was right at the beginning, before we’d really gotten into the more remote hills. 

We walked up and down and down and back up and up and down. Yep, a lot. In the end we walked 18 miles and did 3500 vertical. At one point, someone walking by, told us that we were on the wrong road, it ends and then – he drew his hand across his throat to say – really the end. But then I explained that we were on camino and taking a short cut because of time. Then, he nodded and said, good to go – kind of, tricky trying to communicate between Spanish and Basque. But he wished us luck (I think) and off we went. 

I was so happy for a long long time. Every day, just filled with happiness for so many moments. We stopped at a fountain to refill our water, eat a quick snack and kept going. Then we started going up. For a long long time. Matthew and Bob outpaced us and we never saw them again. Happily, Rick and I are pretty well matched and we certainly weren’t going to lose each other. We took another 5 minute break when I absolutely had to sit down, then kept going. Both of us pulled out our earbuds, me for a book, him for music and then a book. And, oh thank goodness, we had those resources. Basically we were on the MacsAdventures mapped trail for a small fraction of the time for the entire day, just briefly seeing Camino signs and then we were off again. The rest of the time we were using All Trails and just hoping we would get to the town of Markina. 

 Some scenes on the way:

We thought we’d be going down and then up the other side on the trail faintly seen. We were right.

We walked near this town, but didn’t see any cafes so we didn’t deviate from the path. Sigh. This is one of the elevators set up to get people up the hill. 

And, finally, Markina? Please, please let it be Markina. Now, how do we get there?

I’m afraid that by the time we got to the town, we were both used up. We literally went in circles trying to figure out where our hotel was and then decided we had to eat. We found a little place, totally local, not a word of English and managed to order and then just sat. And, actually the food was just fine, better than we’d expected. The vinegar they used on the salad was great! We recovered, stopped cursing and finally figured out where the hotel was. 15 minutes away. 

Turns out it’s a hostel, blend of hotel rooms and bunks for walkers. The  Casa Rural Intxauspe is a pretty busy scene, really nice family running it and we settled into our room. I quickly did a load of laundry and hung it on the line and got a shower – bliss. 

Bob and Matthew had walked straight to Matthew and Carol’s hotel, turns out it’s 30 min away from ours and had an amazing lunch with Carol and Susan. Made Matthew happy! There’s no way we were going to add any extra time to our walk, plus we were 45 min behind Bob and Matthew. 

Rick and I did see one startling monument on our way into town, we didn’t even try to see the churches. This monument is the hexagonal Ermita de San Miguel de Arretxinaga, founded in the 11th century around three Megalithic stones. The archangel saint Michael is the statue you can see, probably about my size.  The saint wields the spear against the demon at his feet in the form of a dragon or another fantastic animal. I was so tired, I didn’t even try to go in to explore, just looked in, goggled at the stones and left. 

Despite having lunch, it wasn’t the grand lunch that we’ve usually had, so we’re going to go down to dinner as well. That’s new, then hoping we sleep a LONG time. 

I got up and out early, hoping to walk the town, Getaria, a bit. Then I wished I’d had another hour. 

It’s a beautiful town with amazing history. This is a photo of the monument to Juan Sebastian Elkano (1487-1526). He was the navigator for the Magellan expedition. Basques never refer to Magellan, (at least in this town) only to Elkano. His name is everywhere. The lot where he lived, the house is gone, was against the back of the hotel where we were saying. The plaque said “The lot of the natal house of the navigator who gave the first round the world trip.”  Matthew immediately knew who he was. Wikipedia: Juan Sebastian Elcano was a Spanish navigator, ship-owner and explorer of Basque origin from Getaria, part of the Crown of Castile when he was born, best known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the Spanish Ship Victoria on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands. 

Then this monument blow was HUGE, too big to even be able to get a photo of the entire structure, just the top. I climbed up to it, then down and realized between the street and the bottom of the hill at the harbor were 11 staircases. We’ve decided this area has to be a blue area – fish, olive oil, and climbing. Everyone looks so strong, young and old. The plaque caught my eye because it was clearly naming a lot of people, but from 1519-1522. 500 years ago and people can still read their names. What did they do? Turns out they went with Elkano – and I guess they all came back. Incredible and they kept a record of all of their names. I love that. 

We were early and tried the cafe that Matthew and Carol had found that opened early, but only saw sweets. I wasn’t thinking yet and didn’t ask about something hot and more protein oriented. Carol just asked and the others all got a great morning breakfast sandwich and then we were off on another perfectly gorgeous hike. This time in full sun with sea breezes most of the way. We were hiking up and down hills that on the elevation map didn’t look so bad, but many felt almost straight up. I was leaning on my poles to pull me up. But most of the climbs were short and by the time you really wanted to be at the top – you were. 

Sadly, there was a mix up between MacsAdventures and TeeTravel, the local Spanish tour company that sets everything up and our hike was shortened to just 10 miles, maybe that. We were on a roll because it was so beautiful, but ok, we’ll stop! Which sets us up for 18 miles tomorrow. Might be a bit too much and some may opt for a taxi to take us part way. We’ll see. It’s supposed to be high 70’s, slightly cloudy, nice. I’d love to do it if the timing could work because so far, it’s all so beautiful. 

Rick and I had a call tonight so we couldn’t explore more. Plus, we’re too far to just walk into town and back. We asked about getting a taxi, but were told there are only 3. For the entire area. And, at that point, one was on the way to the hospital, one to the airport and one elsewhere. Funny. So a call and relax!

Some images:

Scarecrows, they take them seriously here:

Down and up

Staying at Hotel Kalana Itziar, outside Deba. Guessing they couldn’t get rooms in Deba. The woman running things is so nice, told us about the three taxis and an alternative walk along the coast, then getting a bus to the next town. And the lunch was great, but still if doing again, definitely push for being in Deba. It’s supposed to be really nice town, but with 18 miles, we won’t get to expire.

Susan, Bob, Rick and I started straight from our hotel, Carol and Matthew started from a different point and we planned to meet up.

Oh, today was magic. I was so so happy. Walking again, a long distance, Spain, gorgeous Spain. Sounds – roosters, cows and sheep bells, people chatting, quiet walking. Lots of up and down hills, some pretty steep. Views of the bay, a few pretty towns, coastline, farms, wooded walks. I had chat and quiet time, a perfect blend.

This was a small Ermita de San Martin (Saint Martin chapel) that we couldn’t see into, but was in a beautiful scene. Amazing – built in the 13th century and renovated in the 15th century. This was the first sign that went into extensive notes about the architecture.

We were starting to get a bit tired and hoping to find a cafe for a snack, so kept going towards Orio. It was a pretty town, with ancient houses (of course), and I started taking photos of all the plaques on the houses. Then I realized they were telling very little to nothing about the people in the houses, instead describing the architecture. I love the buildings, but I just want to look at them and have little memory for this roof versus that or this building technique versus that. Plus the streets were small enough, I couldn’t back up enough to get photos that were at all satisfying. Here’s one street photo. 

Carol and Matthew’s timing was amazing – after 10 miles, we sat down at a little cafe in Orio, a small fishing community, set down our coffee or hot chocolate and some snacks and there were Carol and Matthew! 

We then walked together for the next 6 miles. 

The church at Orio was interesting because unlike most churches, it was basically hidden in the small town streets, and you didn’t see it coming into town nor did you see it when you left town. Usually, the church is the focal point, seen from far away and beckoning all to join. I managed to sneak in for just a bit during a service and found something new – these communities are all about the sea. This boat is hanging in the air about halfway back. Seemed like there should be a sign, but obviously the community understood why it was there and it’s significance. 

We went off the trail the MacsAdventures had set out for us and ended up climbing up and over a hill instead of going along the coast, but it was beautiful. So though it added a mile +, it ended up being wonderful with views over the bay as we went in and out of the woods. 

We also ran into this Ermita, again reinforcing the connection between the churches and the water.

We finally came down into the town of Getaria. Isn’t that a pretty name? We walked into our hotel, the Hotel Itxas-Gain, and the nicest woman greeted us at the front desk. When she realized we really wanted to go for lunch – we knew it was getting late, almost 4, she jumped into action and called till she found a restaurant willing to take us and told us, “go, go quickly!”  So we dropped our packs and quickly walked down the long hill, round the church, onto the harbor and then into the restaurant. We had to climb 3 flights which felt challenging at that point, 4 people in a row told us we were too late, they closed at 3:30, but then the owner found us, confirmed the ok and we had an amazing meal. Truly, this is a new experience for me to have so many gorgeous meals in Spain. I couldn’t stop eating. Finished our fish and Carol and Matthew’s who had left some bits on theirs. These are whole fish perfectly grilled and lightly flavored. And I keep forgetting to take photos. But – salad, grilled fish, incredible desserts, best yet on that front. 

Then back to the hotel. The woman was so helpful, telling me about the laundromat, showing us this wonderful terrace where we could sit and watch the water and enjoy the sun. Yes, sun!

Tomorrow is a shorter day, only 12 miles with a fair amount of up and down. Happily, the whole crew is on the early out, great late lunch, chill afternoon and evening. Isn’t that nice?

Today was a treat. We took it easy in the morning, everyone doing their own thing and then we met near the City Hall and did a 3 hour electric bike tour. Perfect for tired legs from the day before. We only went 10 miles, but we got to see a lot of San Sebastián, going behind the old town, to neighborhoods, up hills, through the most incredible tunnel I’ve ever experienced. Matthew got an amazing video of it, but I forgot to get a copy. 

One of the places I was curious about was this gorgeous building up on the hill that we’d passed a couple of times as we walked along the bay. The old town has remnants from the 1500’s, 1600’s, then Napoleon destroyed it in 1813. It took 45+ years to rebuild the old city, with a commitment to building the buildings as they had been (though presumably updating at least a bit the interiors, don’t know about that. Anyway, after 1860, they started building the new areas outside the original town walls and continued through the belle epoch era. And then there was this departure piece up the hill. 

Quote from one of the plaques about Queen Maria Christina near the palace/cottage: “Her affable nature earned her the affection of the city’s inhabitants and she even grew familiar with the Basque language. She was the best ambassador the city could have, and there was no cause in San Sebastián that she did not support in Madrid, such as obtaining a permanent telephone line concession or having the Ministry of War sell Mount Úrgull (the mountain with the Jesus of the Sacred Heart statue) to the city. In acknowledgment of all this, in 1926, the Town Hall appointed her “Honorary Mayoress” by acclamation, granting her the city’s first Golden Medal.”

We met at Narru for dinner and had an amazing meal, everyone loved it. A great way to end our San Sebastián stay.