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

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