Today was a privilege.  Day 9 on the Camino del Norte began quite late by pilgrim standards. To get out of Laredo one must take a ferry. It takes two minutes to take you across the river to Santoña, but it doesn’t start running till 9am.  With an 18 mile (29K) day ahead of me and liberated from any notions of arriving in Güemes in time for lunch, I left my hotel just after 8am, stopped at a local cafe for breakfast and got underway. One of the most beautiful days on the Camino del Norte On the Camino del Norte you will often times have a choice between the…

Today was breathtaking. It was also VERY wet.  Truth be told I’ve been incredibly lucky so far. I always knew that walking the Camino del Norte would at some point entail walking through rain. It’s not so green by coincidence. I’ve had fantastic weather until today. But I have to admit, when it started raining not two minutes after I walked off the beach in Castro Urdiales it was dispiriting.  I spent the first hour kind of miserable and wondering if it would be awful of me to just hop in a cab and forget about today’s walk. Life’s too short. Why put myself through this?  Then it stopped raining…

Goodbye Basque Country, Hello Cantabria. Just another day on the Camino del Norte So far Cantabria is beautiful but holy highway walking Batman. I knew it was coming, but still not the greatest to have to do. The first three-quarters of my day was amazing though. Today was cheat day number two. Meaning that while I started in Bilbao, I did not walk all the way. If I had I would still be on the road.  I began my day by walking from my lovely apartment to the closest subway station. Twenty minutes later I reached the outskirts of Bilbao having gone through some pretty ugly industrial areas. Not sorry…

Bilbao, how do I love thee? Also, cue my first cheat day on the Camino del Norte. First to the cheating part.  Back when I started planning for this trip I knew I wanted to end in Oviedo. There is a significant historical peg that makes me want to finish there and not just on some random town along the Way. I also knew that with the amount of time off I dispose of that would not happen unless I sacrificed rest days OR skipped certain sections of the Camino. I chose the later.  Long days on the Camino del Norte: different ways of dealing with them. It is well…

I almost got on a bus today.  After four days of challenging terrain on the Camino del Norte I woke up today optimistic. I thought that despite being a long day, it would be way easier than the previous ones. The woman at the hotel reinforced my thoughts.  Then I put my daypack on. Uh oh. My lower back was not happy. As in really not happy. With nothing to do but go on, go on I did. Bolibar or Bolivar? With the company of an Australian woman from Perth I got through the first couple of hours until we arrived at Bolibar. Yep. That Bolibar. The town, is said…

I played fetch with an adorable cocker spaniel puppy today. Today was a good day on the Camino del Norte. It was one of those where nothing extraordinary happened and yet, a collection of good moments and people turned it into something truly enjoyable all the way from Mutriku to Markina-Xemein. A slow start I started much later than I would have liked. The Casa Rural or country home I spent the night in was lovely, but not being in the business of catering primarily to pilgrims they did not serve breakfast till 8:30am. By pilgrim standards this is insanely late. Our schedules being very much the opposite of Spaniards…

Today was simply unbelievable. The Ruta del Flysch IS simply unbelievable. And I’m wrecked. I started my day early, determined to be on the road by 7:30am. I managed that but right off the bat lost my way by missing one of the yellow arrows out of town. It would, as it turned out, be the theme for the day.   In any case, my little detour wasn’t a biggie. It cost me around 15 minutes or so, and soon I was on the proper way thanks to a couple of locals.  The Ruta del Flysch The main course for the day so to speak was to traverse an alternate…

Wow. What a day. This first day on the Camino del Norte was more beautiful than I imagined. It was also very hard and totally different from my first Camino two years ago. I’m writing this from bed in San Sebastián on Monday morning as I had nothing left in me last night other than thoughts of food and rest.  I started the day around 8:15am somewhat discombobulated. That at least was the same as my very first day leaving St Jean Pied de Port on the French Way. It was also later than I would have liked, but since I couldn’t have breakfast before 7:30am and there would be…