Month: April 2018

Pobeña was the last town we stayed in in Pais Vasco, also known as Vizcaya (Basque Country). We started seeing more Spanish names before that but after Pobeña it was all Spanish. No more x’s and k’s. Castro Urdiales was our first stay in Cantabria. The pintxos petered out a bit and now, after a few days, they are not nearly as good. We didn’t have much of a sense of Cantabria and what it would be like. We will enter Asturias in about 9 days. (For more about the regions of Spain see this. We started in 4, now we are in 3, next is 2. Santiago is in 1.)

After Islares the Camino follows the N-234 road into Laredo. All road walking with a narrow shoulder. We decided to take the bus. We caught it at the above bus stop near our hotel and it was 20 minutes to Laredo for 1.35 euro each. A good choice.

In researching the Camino del Norte there was consensus about a few things: (1) lots of ups and downs, (2) beautiful views, (3) very green, (4) much less busy than the Camino Frances, (5) lots of paved sections. All of these have turned out to be true.

We have found though that the paved roads have not been a problem. I would guess that 70-80% of the path so far has been on pavement, asphalt, or boardwalk, that is, artificial surfaces. Some of this is paved walking paths. Some of it is on small rural roads where you get a car every 5 minutes or less. A little is on busier roads and maybe 1-2% is on roads with small shoulders where you worry a little.

We like walking through the rural neighborhoods. And the paved paths are not muddy like the forest paths. So we have been quite satisfied with this aspect of the Camino del Norte.

Post by Wynette: We walked 9.8 miles today. It was a pretty walk past green fields, but a few miles inland. Was not as fun or interesting as yesterday. Those ocean views kind of spoil you. It was mostly along quiet paved country roads. Exception was a brief respite from road walking through a field. (Yes, that is the official Camino above.) It reminded us of the Via Francigena.

For the first 7.5 miles there were no services (bars, restaurants, bathrooms). We had planned to stop at the 7.5 mile mark but after resting and having coffee and fried eggs and toast, we decided, since we hadn’t yet made any reservations, to go a little further.

Post by Wynette: The Spanish call lunch “la comida” which translates to “the meal”. We had lunch today at the only restaurant open in the little town where we are spending the night. (We didn’t make it there till 3:00. They closed at 4:00.) We were lucky how good it was. Above was their menu del día. Each person gets one from each category (a first course and second course), plus dessert, bread, and water or wine.

Post by Wynette: We rode a 2 Euro ferry across a channel between Laredo and Santoña. (Notice the Camino arrow on the front.) We shared the ride with four other pilgrims: a young woman from Lithuania, a young man from China (!), an older man from France, and a young woman from ?. Everyone was very friendly. Here is the Chinese man helping Charlie with his hat as we were about to disembark:

This was during a lovely beach walking part of the Camino. Firm sand since the tide had just started to go out.

Post by Wynette: Note the bump called El Brusco. It looked pretty steep but was only 83 meters up. How hard could that be? Well it was amazing. A high hill we went over between the sandy beaches. It was much harder and scarier than we expected. Going up it was actually fun. Going down, well, we were glad when it was over. It took us about an hour to walk what was probably much less than a half mile of trail.

Previous post shows a photo of Charlie going down one of the easier sections of the downhill side. Below is Wynette going up.

Post by Wynette: We walked 10.6 glorious miles today after bussing 10 of what would have been scary miles on a busy, narrow highway with frequently-absent shoulder. (We saw it all from the bus and couldn’t believe people actually walk it, several of whom we saw. Maybe if we were 30 years younger we wouldn’t mind being miserable for hours and risking our lives.)

But after that we walked along a beach sidewalk then took a fun ferry ride then walked along a loooong beach on the wet sand and then had an amazing steep climb up and over a hill back down to another loooong beach walking on the wet sand. Yes, in the photo above, trail and then beach below is actually the official Camino. Then on town streets and country roads to where we are spending the night. What a day! One thing I love about the Camino is you never know what to expect.

Another example of what we see all the time here. A few animals in a big field of lush grass. I don’t know what makes cows happy but I am confident that these cows are not suffering like the ones in huge agribusiness operations. I want milk from these cows. These might be outliers even here, I don’t really know.