Again our Albergue was right on the Camino. There was no kitchen here but it did boast a dinning room, for a few extra euros we could order breakfast. Not like an American breakfast, just bread, butter and jam, coffee and a piece of fruit. We’ve been given that a few times now.

Getting to Berria, the next town was a pretty nice walk. We walked out of the busy section of town towards El Dueso, a long high walled prison.

We continued on a paved surface but there was much to see and appreciate.

After the prison we continued on through this town, along the sidewalk, leading to the beach.

We left the beach and followed a winding path towards Alto El Brusco. We started climbing.

We were actually enjoying our selves, this was fun! Like an obstacle course climbing over different objects. We had prickly bushes on each side of the trail, so I figured if I fall down I actually won’t go far. I had a sense of security and enjoyed the climb. Then we reached the peak. Scary! No more bushes to protect a fall. Al had to take the lead.

Just love all the different flowers!

After the peak going down was rough! The ground was wet on this side of the mountain extremely slippery with jagged rocks jutting out. It was treacherous going. We went slow and helped each other over difficult parts.

Almost off the mountain.

We came down several steps and we were out and on the beach, it was incredible, exhilarating , nerve wracking and fantastic! Loved it!

We walked across the sands to an opening between two buildings leading to Noja.

After we left the beach we continued down a gravel path between animals on one side and gardens on the other.

We were trying to get to Guemes, but somehow got off track.

We stopped for a break and the extremely kind waitress told us of an alternate route. We walked down Eucalyptus lined roads.

Finally we arrive at the best Albergue so far.

La Cabana Del Abuelo Peuto. We were greeted with glasses of fresh water and cookies during registration. Then we got a quick tour and led to out bunks. Dinner is provided as well as breakfast and it is all run on donations and with the help of volunteers.

Al’s Relive link of our day’s adventure log is below

https://www.relive.cc/view/veqzoZndGBv

Our Albergue was right on the Camino today, which was nice. It was a smaller one, just 16 bunks, I had the top one this time. 😐 I’m serious, getting up there is tough, there was also no rail on the side, I was a little concerned about rolling out.

If your not up and already moving the lights come on in most Albergues at 7am, whether you like it or not. They want you out the door by 8am, most times as today, we were the last ones. It’s not me, just so you know. (Note from Allen: just remember who is narrating)

We walked around the beach a bit last night before bed. We are now in Cantabria having left Basque Country when we entered Castro-Urdiales.

We started up out of the town heading to Santoña. First we have to pass through some residential areas, past a camp ground, down farm lanes and 5 km later we arrive in Allendelagua.

We have some sun for a little bit.

We walked a couple more kilometers to Cerdigo where then 3km more into Islares. After about 10km of road walking we caught a city bus to the next bigger town, Laredo. Another coastal beach town.

Here is Al’s Relive link, he separated today into two video logs.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vE6JnZd7yx6

After we got off the bus we started walking on the sidewalks through town leading to the ferry point.

We finally got to the El Puntal, the beachhead and had to walk over the dunes on wooden planks to the beach on the other side. The ferry pulls right up onto the beach and cranks out a gang plank to board the ferry.

It was a busy day in Santoña when we arrived, very crowded with people everywhere. The cafes spread out into the side walks and we tried to find our way through the throng.

We finally found our Albergue, which was tough it in was in Plaza San Antonio and looked nothing like the picture. It was wedged between two restaurants.

Al’s video log below showing our 2nd leg of today’s journey.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vNOPQN7G3Y6

Well it started out okay…

We had a great walk out of Pobena. Of course we had to go up, lots of slick wet stairs.

We were enjoying it, there was a hand rail which was a plus. After a kazillion steps the path straightened out to a high walled path. Then we continued onto a cliff walk there were nice log rails on the side.

We continued along taking pictures then the trail split, top path was designated for bikes and bottom trail for pedestrians according to sign. We took the bottom path and continued on. Then things went south.

We were just walking along and then there’s a gorge! Which you can see in picture below has these rickety stairs and flimsy rails! I was terrified.

We had to go down the stairs then across the gorge on old wooden planks then back up stairs. Then they have this gate system meant to keep animals inside certain areas by making it a skinny funnel kind of gate. Well we aren’t small with backpacks attached to us, getting thru those things is difficult to say the least. Then the path just ended, there’s a cliff, and a small dirt path to the side, I tell Al, No way, I’m not doing that”. We can go up an incline, which we do, there is another funnel gate to get through and we see a sign on the other side of the fence saying don’t go this way, too dangerous!!!! What the heck!

Where was the sign at the other end telling us not to go that way??!!

Then there was the landslide to get across, I knew there had been one just not where on the trail it was. So we climbed over that and it was beautiful, lots to see.

We had to go through this tunnel, once through the other side the trail went down and we went under a freeway and into a small town .

We wound around a little bit then we’re out of the town and we walked up the side of a highway it seemed forever. Surprise another tunnel, this one was much longer. Finally we were walking into Castro-Urdiales, which is a sea side kind of town. There are several beaches and actually a bull ring. Which is where our Albergue was behind the bull ring.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vE6JnZd7yx6

Today was our longest day walking so far, 16 miles and I only took one picture.

Actually it did get better after awhile. We told our selves No More Alternate Routes! The original route today was on the road thru the industrial sections of town. First we had to walk through the outskirts of town

We went through Barakaldo, we stopped here for a bathroom break. Then Sestao, where Al took that picture of the sculpture. And finally Portugalete. We were mostly on greenway. The country has a wonderful greenway system. Bike riders don’t have to share a lane with walkers but have their own 2 lanes. And there are bridges also dedicated to green traffic.

Then we left the industrial area and back into the country side. Flowers everywhere,

We followed a long single lane road to La Arena. A beach town. We passed through there onto a boardwalk to the beach leading to Pobeña. Our trail was actually across the beach to another boardwalk leading to a bridge into town.

https://www.relive.cc/view/v36A38zknZv

We found the small Albergue, the only one in town and got cleaned up.

One of the problems we are running into is the schedule of some of the Bars/restaurants. They serve the “ meal of the day” until 4, then it’s over until 7 or 8 pm when you can order food again.

There’s little things in the bar, olives or other small dishes with pintxos. The issue is we are dirty, hungry and tired in that order. A few times we have eaten lunch, meal of the day, then nothing else. We don’t want to wait to eat until 7 or 8, we want to be in bed by nine. Some of the hikers here shower then sleep, then wake up and eat and back to sleep again. In this particular town, there were only three restaurants, the 1st said no more hot food until tomorrow, the 2nd place said we just missed the time, nothing till 7pm. Another day with just granola bars and a shared banana, we were hungry but our choices are very limited, we do love the meal of the day so we waited.

Al has one of those screen savers at work that beautiful scenic pictures pop up on. One day Gaztelugatxe Islet popped up. He thought, Wow where is that and then he found out it was in Spain. It turned out we were sorta close to it.

We knew we had to take a bus out of Bilbao and that they ran every half hour or so. We found the bus stop the night before and checked out exactly where to be and when.

Next morning we joined a long line in front of a Starbucks and jumped on Bus 3518 out of Bilbao.

I had to walk out onto a promontory all alone to get this picture. Plus the wind was gusting about 50 miles an hour, I only took one shot and hustled back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaztelugatxe

Our bus ride took about 35 minutes to get to Bizkaia and cost 5E for the two of us. I used my AllTrails app to find our way to the trail once off the bus. It was about 3 miles, up hills and down, it seemed mostly up. Beautiful walk, very rainy but the coast is amazing. There were even surfers out in the water.

We just kept going up until finally we were there. They had a little store and a picturesque cafe with an upscale restaurant. There was no booth to collect tickets or anything.

Then the long walk down to the land bridge. It was steep going. There were seats along the way for resting. Believe me. We used those on the way back.

Then the long long climb up, I really didn’t think I could do it. It was kinda scary to me. 239 stairs!! Over the ocean!! On a cliff!! Later my activity tracker told me that day, I climbed 108 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!!

It was incredible, there have been several things on this trip that I actually didn’t think I could do. Having Al’s support and patience I have overcome these challenges and surprised myself.

Going down the stairs was just as tough as going up and we still had to go up the long steep path to the beginning. We stopped at the cafe for some pintxos and Radlers, once fortified we headed on our 3 miles back to the bus stop.

It was an amazing day and I would definitely recommend anyone in the area to go and see Gaztelugatxe. Bizkaia is just beautiful. They have a lovely town and beach.

Tomorrow, we leave Bilbao.. until then be well

We headed out early. Brian, Al’s brother gave us a laundry list of things to do in Bilbao. Al had to figure out where they all were and map out our day. We were all over the place. It’s raining today but we dressed accordingly and headed out. There are just so many beautiful historic buildings that are just incredible . I’m going to clip Al video here of our days walking, we did a little over nine miles back and forth.

https://www.relive.cc/view/v7O95R9reQO

The Dona Casilda De Iturrizar Fountain

We spent most of the day out and between taking pictures and mapping us everywhere my phone died. Tomorrow we go to Gaztelugatxe.

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.

Getting hungry just thinking about it. Breakfast was 1/2 a banana and a granola bar.

We did see some sites as well.

We still managed to walk about 7 miles today. Until next time.. be well