Our forth day and it has been amazing. Really enjoying all the people we are meeting. Shared dinner last night with some people from Brussels. We’ve also been walking a bit with a lovely girl from Germany. Walking really allows time for conversation with other people and also time for reflection. It’s been a blessing.

Of course we started up a hill, we must be getting stronger because it wasn’t so bad today. Just a few minutes out of the city there are farms. Flowers are growing everywhere, gardens along roadsides, just wonderful. Today was a combination of woods and road walking.

There was also a lot of cute animals

There’s a goat in there somewhere 🐐

There have been times when either I or Al just have felt, ok this is it, I just can’t walk anymore. Then we start talking about something or I’ll say, “look at that” and before you know it another 2 hours have gone by. We are certainly not the fastest but we are getting there.

After about 10 we started to enter the town Orio. We walked thru the older town towards the water and had to cross over a river and continue along the coast.

It seems that every town we enter it’s always down into and then up out of.

After a few more miles of a mostly road walking we made it to our destination for tonight, Zarautz.

Which of course was going down, we turned a corner and the town and beach was spread before us.

I found out link above has an ad on it, just click the X in top right corner, ad will go away and a video should play. Let me know if it works for you 😀

Until tomorrow.. be well

We left out Albergue and started down to cross the canal. Getting there required 184 steps down, I know that number because after the 2nd time climbing up I counted! Very small albergue behind the church on the hill, only 14 beds.

We had a lovely walk beside the canal before, yes, more stairs. They seemed endless. As we left Pasajes the views were just incredible.

The stairs started out nice, then we kept turning, railing disappeared and steps turned into random stones. Then the castle set into the top of the hillside. Just Wow!

https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvr3GP7XLO

We walked through the woods and again had another choice to stay on the original Camino or take the tougher more scenic route, also happens to be a little longer. Of course that’s what we decided on. It was very worth it.

We had to walk down into San Sebastián which has beach after gorgeous beach. We had to some time before we could check into our Hostel to we celebrated our Anniversary and had an amazing lunch. We had a standard Meal of the day, which is a salad course, main dish then some kind of dessert, it also includes a bottle of wine. 😀

We walked back down the beach stopped at a grocery store for some supplies and headed in for the night. Tomorrow is another big day, so until then.. be well.

Just a great day. Amazing views and beautiful scenery. 

We left Irún somewhat early and went partway through town then headed up and into the woods. Then we continued up and up. We had a choice at one point to continue climbing of take the easier trail. 

We took the trail named purgatory, it’s really named that, it was tough but truly incredible. We had to go up and thru pasture lands along a ridge line passing through gates as we entered and left each area. One pasture had horses and newborn colts. There were several grazing there and it was just amazing. 

No places to eat at along the way today, so when we finally arrived in Pasajes de San Juan I was a little hungry after walking 10 miles on just a couple of granola bars. There were no store in this little town that we could find and it took us 3 tries before we could find a restaurant that would serve us food at 5pm. Here in Spain dinner is much later. 

It is now 8pm and I’m ready for bed. So until next time.. be well. 

I heard that the grass is greener on the other side, tastes better too!

We arrived in Madrid then waited there for 5 hours for our next flight to San Sebastián. San Sebastián is a smallish airport. We caught a bus right outside, it was perfect.

Turned out to not be so perfect. Turns out that the town of Irun is not even a mile from the airport. So yes as we had read online you can just take a bus or taxi to Irún. Which we did 6E, rode the bus for 45 minutes until everyone else was gone, turns out that Irun was right there! So another 6E and 45 more minutes to get back to the airport so we could then walk to our Albergue.

It all worked out well in the end, we met a young woman from England who we were able to spend some time with and get to know a little bit.

After checking in and getting our assigned bunks we headed to explore the town. What is really neat about Spain is that the people are very social. They were all out with their kids or walking their dogs, or just meeting up with friends and family on the sidewalk.

This Albergue sleeps 66 people and it is at capacity. They allow us to use the kitchen and we picked up a few things and had an early night

Porto is a beautiful place, a mix of old and new. There is lots of revitalizing going on, construction projects everywhere. This city has a lot in common with San Francisco in the U.S. There are lots of steep hills, beautiful bridges, tram cars, and houses seemingly on top of houses. We have a few days here so plenty of time to explore.

What I notice first are the tiles, they are everywhere, on most of the buildings and all different. Some are actually made into murals.

We happened to go into the train station. What a surprise, it was incredible. It is the São Bento Railway station.

The 1st tiles were placed in 1905, there are 20,000 azulejo tiles by Jorge Colaco in the vestibule. I will put a link about this at the end of this post.

We were pretty awestruck, it was amazing!

We got a tickets for the hop on hop off bus. The city is big and the bus also goes across the river into Gaia. Both are known for Port wine and sandy beaches. We checked both out.

The bridge uses both levels for traffic. We walked back on the lower level. I just couldn’t do the top, I think it was enough that I walked across it at all.

We try local food and of course the Port wine. Both fantastic!

The next day I want to go back to the beach so we jump on the bus again. I really liked these trees, nothing said what kind they are. It is a beautiful day and we really enjoyed walking around. Well I did, Al grabs a bench when ever he can, that foot is going to have to be looked at.

I think it is so cool that we are at the other side of the Atlantic.

These are from the 1st time we went to the beach, limpet shells, sea glass, a cool piece of tile and other bits and pieces. Al reminds me I still have to carry everything I pick up. I have 2 rocks in my backpack already from the Camino.

We walk along the beach back to the next bus stop. We decide to walk out here also. It really is lovely.

The sun is setting on our last night in Porto.

Thank you all for following along with us, thanks also for your prayers and encouragement. We are both missing home and looking forward to being back with our family again.

Until next time, be well

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Bento_railway_station

After the walking is done

AJ and Allen hogged the bathroom and each took baths. I found another book and then fell asleep. AJ said that I am probably the only person on the Camino who read the book that they brought. Then I read another and another. You can always find time to read in my opinion. I did ask people if they had brought a book besides a guidebook on the Camino and if so, what was it. The responses were mostly no, but some yes, Bibles and journals a lot. AJ brought 2 books, one about mushrooms and one of poetry. I brought a book by Janet Evanovich, something fun. When I finished that I left it at an Albergue and took one someone else left.

When I woke up I found that Al and AJ were both sleeping. It is still raining, so I let them continue to rest. We had decided to take a rest day but we needed food. They wake up and we head out to find a grocery store.

We pick up stuff for sandwiches, a bunch of snacks, wine for me and beer for them. AJ then made us the best Dagwood sandwiches!

The rain has let up and some of the people AJ met along the way have arrived in Santiago. We go to the cathedral and attend mass.

It is still blustery!

It continues to rain on and off so we head back to our hotel. Also Al’s foot continues to plague him, so we make it an early night.

The Cathedral Square is the place to go to meet up with other pilgrims. After breakfast the next day we head there.

I take a lot of pictures of doors. There’s just something I love about them.

At noon there is a special pilgrims mass at the Cathedral, we go to that one also. This is where they swing the botafumeiro, it’s a huge incense burner that takes several guys to swing. I have included a link below. We have been to different churches but the experience here was different. There are tourists wandering around during service. There’s confessions going on to the side, it’s a beautiful place but no pictures allowed, but cameras and phones everywhere, it is a show. The people who call this church home must put it out of their heads, I would find it hard, it just seems disrespectful to me. I also film a little of the ceremony when they swing the incense burner, that’s the only part you are really allowed to, not sure why. There was a children’s choir singing, that was beautiful!

We really didn’t do much in Santiago, wandered around for a bit and more resting our feet.

The sky was gorgeous tonight!

Tomorrow we have to hop on a train and then a bus to Portugal. Travel within Europe is very inexpensive. It will be only 13e for a train ticket out of Spain, it will take a couple of hours and the scenery along the coast we hear is just beautiful.

https://vivecamino.com/en/the-pilgrimage/pilgrim-mass/

I hope that there will be more to follow, until then, be well

Less then 20 kms to go until we walk into Santiago! We were really hoping the rain would just stay away a bit. A woman explained to us that last year they had a drought in Spain. She also thinks we all crazy to be walking when it rains everyday. We walk out of town and into a eucalyptus grove.

AJ has been walking with us now for 3 days. A lesson for him in patience I am sure. He has been great about it.

You have probably all figured out by now that I like plants, rocks and trees, it is fascinating to me that they are still growing things, these look like young plants to me. There are also fruit and nut trees everywhere. I picked a couple of figs yesterday. Lots of orchards where the fruit just seems to be on the ground. Not sure why.

Me investigating a mushroom.

Well the rain started again. It is a very cold rain.

I normally have no sense of smell, but recently since the medicine in Leon I started smelling things. I tried to smell one of these trees but it is the leaves that smell of eucalyptus. I may have been a little annoying trying to guess what’s that smell for the last few days . 😁

10 kms to go! They are not easy or fun to walk, but grueling long and hard.

Walking into the outskirts of Santiago, up hill, of course, I just want to get there. We have a snack while walking, an orange for Al and I eat a power bar. We normally walk all day, leaving around 8, stopping for a quick coffee, then lunch around 1, if there is a place. Today, just coffee and a snack. We had no real break. Our plan was to make it to town, stay at a nicer place, get a real room that has a bathtub! So we finally make it, wet and cold to the bone, AJ can’t stop shivering. We want to get to wherever we are sleeping, take showers, get dry and then go to pilgrim office. Everything sold out! No! So we order lunch, which is good but takes way to long. We call more places, nothing. AJ really did not want an Albergue, but he wants warm and dry more. So we settle on a place close by and check in.

If you can imagine, the rain is worse, it’s like a monsoon out there. Everyone’s umbrella is bent backwards. It’s all so anticlimactic, we are happy to be here and done, but we also just want it behind us.

We are again soaked to the skin. It is still a couple of kms to the pilgrim office to complete our Camino and get our Compostelas.

This is Al’s Compostela and then a pilgrim passport.

The passport is a little booklet that had places for stamps. Every Albergue at night would stamp our pilgrim passports and make sure we had real ones s well. We could also get a stamp at churches or some restaurants and bars. The back side is all stamped up also.

So I will probably blog a few more times until we go home, maybe do a follow up I am not sure yet.

Do any of you have any questions?

More to follow, until then be well.