Out of Deba

Our Albergue last night in Deba was kinda neat. It was on top of the train station. Only 52 beds and we were the last two that night, #’s 46 & 47. No kitchen but a nice hot shower, which we did real quick because I was hungry and the door to get back in locks at 10p. So we ate right across the street and came back and washed our clothes, in a washing machine 😀. Then we got to even dry our clothes for 3 more euros. Bliss, no wet clothes in the morning.

We were told the trail to the next town was about 4K, mostly up. We already felt done in and had really only just started. At about the halfway point we stopped to rest a moment and talk over what we should do. We discussed our options and knowing that there were only 14 beds in the next town then another 22 km after that until the next bigger town we decided to turn around and take a rest day. The Norte route is much different then the French route, there is nothing in between these little towns and it’s less roads and more woods and farm tracks.

We took a train to Bilbao. The train system is really nice, easy to use and inexpensive. I wish our map reading skills and our grasp of the language were a little better. We got off the train too soon and had to walk halfway across the city to find where we were staying.

We arrived around lunchtime, got settled and went out to find food and explore.

We are mostly getting our food from the grocery stores but when we eat out we have been getting “el menú de dia” . It’s usually 3 courses, with bread and a bottle of wine. Very inexpensive and usually pretty good, this is a picture of a typical, “ ensalada mixa”

These are a few more pictures of our meals. there are typically several choices for each course. Allen choose prawns yesterday and I had a vegetable stew. The 2nd course is usually some kind of meat but yesterday I had eggplant stuffed with other vegetables. Then dessert could be flan, cake or ice cream.