Day: April 17, 2024

We stopped at a bar on our walk today. Charlie remembered it from 2018. I didn’t till we actually got there. We left Basque Country on today’s walk and entered Cantabria. Charlie remembered that the great pinchos (Basque tapas) were missing from this bar. We went in and, sure enough, they had hardly anything to eat since the kitchen wasn’t yet open for lunch. They didn’t even have the ubiquitous tortilla. But … they did have olives (aceitunas in Spanish). We ordered some. They were so good. Total bill was 6 euros for two coffees and the olives.

We started today’s walk on this boardwalk. Way up ahead you can barely see Christina and Kelly, the couple Charlie mentioned in today’s diary. They walked about the same pace as us so we ran into them several times, passing each other.

About half way through the day, Kelly spotted a restroom for all of us. It was in a tiny government building in a tiny town. I was starting to despair. I think they were, too. Kelly decided to go in and see if there were “facilities.” There were. What a relief!!

But, I digress, I was going to talk about how great it feels to set out in the morning. You are fresh and rested and caffeinated and excited about what may lie ahead. I love the feeling of setting out in the morning each day.

Later in the day is different, of course. Feet starting to burn. Just wanting to “be there”. But, always a great feeling of accomplishment when we arrive at our place for the night (usually around 2 or 3 — just in time for a great Spanish lunch).

He’s determined and going places.

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She’s going places also. In graphic design the ponytail is a common way to show the figure is female.

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This guy is a little ragged.

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He is a bit more careful.

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A jaunty step

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More blocky.

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On a bike.

On a hike!

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And some juvenile graffiti humor.

Last night:

Tonight. Of course this room is €20 more a night:

Alcohol units: 2 (this is from yesterday, wine with lunch)
Miles walked: 11.3
Route changes from 2018: several
Episcopal priests on sabbatical: 1 (and her partner)
Tunnels: 1 (and thank you to St. James)

A little longer day than our usual but blessed by a tunnel through a 650 foot hill that we did not have to climb. It was not on our track but the yellow arrows took us through.

There have been a lot of small changes to the Camino path since 2018 and since our GPS track was recorded. The biggest one was right the beginning. In 2018 we climbed up over 100 steps to a path cut into the side of the cliff lead down to the water. It was originally a right of way for a small train. A spectacular path. See our 2018 for photos. They changed it to a mundane path with no views of the ocean but lots of mud and ups and downs. We are not fans. The best change was the tunnel.

It is fun when you meet people several times like we did with the priest (female) and her partner. They were from Boston. Lots of travel choices from Boston. They came over on Icelandic Airlines and are going back stopping in the Azores. We looked into stopping in the Azores this trip but the details didn’t work out. The advantage is that you can take a 6 hour daytime flight from Boston, stay a day or two in the Azores (which looked really nice), and then a short flight to Madrid. We do not like the overnight flights. She was on sabbatical and they spent time in France and are now walking the whole Camino del Norte (about 500 miles).

We took the blue path. Note: I created all these google map posts before we left so the date inside the map will be wrong because of our dynamic changes.