Category: Uncategorized

Mountains climbed: 1 (1900 feet)
Distance walked: 6.9 (hard) miles (up 1300 feet, down 1900 feet)
Taxi rides: 1 (we skipped the first four miles and 600 feet up)
Maximum heart rate on ridiculously steep first part: 139 (I think my watch alarms when it passes 140)
Number of times during the hike when we wished we had taken the lower route: at least five
Number of times we wished we had taken the lower route after we finished: 0
Most expensive menu del dia: €31.5 (but it was really excellent)
Darling little seaside towns entered: 1 (Pasajes aka in Basque Pasaia was lovely)

We decided we could handle the Purgatorio route. We did but just barely. See a later post on this. There will also be one on Pasajes.

There are two routes. The upper one is harder but prettier. Reader, we took it.

Cigarettes: 0 (Bridget had more)
Alcohol units: (Ditto)
Total solar eclipses missed by 1 hour: 1
Unpleasant transatlantic crossings: 1
American airport meals: 1 (not too bad)
Airplane meals: 1 (mediocre but not terrible.
Number of times the word claro heard in two overheard conversations in the Madrid airport: at least 40 (I didn’t understand any other word as it was all Spanish. Wynette told me they use it kind of like we would say “of course.” They always say it twice: “claro claro”.)
Spanish airport meals: 1 (very good and inexpensive, and good coffee)
Friendly passport agents: 1 (usually they are very businesslike)
Walks from airport to hotel: 1 (San Sebastian has a tiny airport, it was a 15 minute walk)
Sudden rain storms: 1 (walking from airport. It started sunny, then cloudy, then a few drops, then a cloudburst)

We were in the air between Albuquerque and Dallas during the eclipse, and outside of totality. We couldn’t see anything.

Spanish airport food is very good. We had focaccia bread with Spanish tortilla and ham.

As usual, economy class sucked. The main problem is you have so little space. Sleeping more than a few hours is impossible.

Northern Spain has very changeable weather. We put coats away because it was sunny and hot. The rain came quickly and got our suitcase wet inside, through the zipper. We dried it with a hair dryer.

It turns out that if your hands and screen are wet, touches do not register on your phone screen. That makes it hard to access the map app to find your hotel.