Now What?

It has been many months since I posted. It has been many mosre months since my last visit to Spain.  Walking the Del Norte by myslef, all be it meeting people along the way, is enough solitude.  At my age, 64, I am still wanting adventure but not alone.  I have had enough of being by myself, I want someone to share my adventures with.  My husband is not willing to get out there but at least we agree that it is o.k. for me to experience the life I want.

I think I am done with Spain.  But now what?  There are other sacred walks in places around the world and it seems that I mush begin to find company on those journeys.  There are web sites that help single travellers find other single travellers or groups to share journeys with, I think I will start there.  Here's to meeting new friends on the travel sites.

Memories of Getting to Deba

I finally got to a computer after reaching the del Norte but not until Deba, day 4 and 8 days away from home.  I left Toronto and flew to Barcelona which was amazing to the end.  I spent most of the last day at the Picasso Museum.  What a great display.  There was, just by chance, a special collection on view of his works from Paris and a few private collections.  The show was about his years in Paris starting in 1900.  He was young and learning from the artists of the day.  The main gallery shows his works from the 30s on.  He appears to be quite a character. 


I left Barcelona by train at 7:30 in the morning and got to Irun by 1in the afternoon.  It was sunny when I got to Irun, had a hard time finding the Albergue only to discover it didn't open until 4.  The next day it was raining like crazy.  (No real raincoat, remember my last post!)

It has rained since Irun,  through San Sebastian and through to Zarautz the next day.   But the sun came out in Deba.  I am walking with a woman from Ireland who is really a lot of fun with the Irish humour etc.  This is her 3rd Camino too so we have a lot to talk about.  My god the hills on the Del Norte so far are amazing.  No gradual climbs,  - straight up and straight down and many of them.  I am so greatful that I am fit. 
As ususal our average walk is 20 to 22K.  We usually are at our destination by 1.30 but  we didn´t get to Deba until 3.  The hills were steep but also many muddy trails that were slippery.  I couldn´t wait to get my boots off.  Yesterday and today are beach towns and the water is beautiful.  I got into the ocean for a swim yesterday and today our day was so long that I had to take up the time getting a bed, finding food and writing to catch up with everyone. 
Deba  is an very interesting town.  It has elevators!  Right in the middle of the town, there are elevators to move people up the various levels that the town is built on.  Why I didn't take a photo I don't know.  Anyway the presence of eleators in a small town like Deba might give you some sense of the steepness of the hills around there.

Photos are, Irun, Leaving Irun in the Rain by Boat, Zararutz beach where we swam and the Picasso posted in Barcelona. So much for now.  Stay tuned.

I hope I haven't lost you

I have been absent from my blog for far too long.  I hope to make it up to you, dear readers, by getting back into the swing of writing.  There is so much that I have not written about Del Norte or about my reactions to walking there.
I will try not to let my ego get out front, but I have to say that in many ways the Del Norte was harder than either the Frances or the Portuguese and I made it!  What made it difficult?
First, the 10 days of rain through the mountains was tough.  I was so confident from my previous Caminos that it never rained hard enough for a serious rain coat, that I didn't take anything but a disposable!
Well that changed by day two and a half and lucky for me Donostia-San Sabastiaan had a few great out-door shops.  I bought a rain coat that I had been looking for in Canada.  Yes, the exact one that was not available at MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) and for the same price they were selling it for.  Wow, I was ready now.
I stepped out of the store in my newly aquired red, red, red zipperd coat with additional closers in case I didn't want to zip up and with a properly fitting hood and last but not least an expandable pouch in the back that fitted over my pack without exposing the back of my knees to the weather!  Wow, it was great to be dry.
 So let that be my first lesson on the Del Norte.  Don't take Mother Nature for granted ever.  Be alert! Be ready!
Stay tuned for another entry to this blog any day now.

After Portugalete

So now the route levels out, thank St James.  In addition the sun is breaking though more often as we have left the Basque country.  Now into Cantabria we are dealing with asphalt, every step of the way.  Oh that is a big shock to my bad knees.  I am greatful that my boots are good to my feet at least.  Still no blisters.

So on through to Pobena and Cobaron.

Bilbao

This isn't true, I do know where I am and I digress back to July22.

Here goes

I left Gernika via train.  OMG is this possible or allowable, yep I did it anyway knowing that I would not be going to Santi this time to get a compostella.  Off to Bilbao.  I am very glad I did this.  Bilbao is a lovely city, unfortunately very much under construction for some reason, but the Guggenheimm is here so there you go.  We leaqrned tht one must choose between 2 Albergues.  To get to both one must take the number 58 bus from the main square just below the train station.  The first Albergue you reach is a hotel sized building and it is a private albergue costing over 15 euros.  If you are in Bilbao before June 1 and after school opens you must stay here.  The second albergue is in a location above the first one, you are driving up a big hill, and it is great.  Try to find more info on line about this place so that you can be more specific if you go, I should have taken notes.  If I was to do it again I would find a reasonably priced hostel or Pension as stay in the city.

The issue with either place is that they are 30 minutes by bus outside the main city.  It is worth the trip back into the city once you get settled there is much to see there.

We left by train or bus (can't remember) the next afternoon after we spent the day looking around.  I have had too much experience walking through the suburbs and industrial sections of large cities of the Camino to know that I wanted to do it again.  So I became a bus pilgrim two days in a row.

The hospitaliaro in Portuglete, the next stop on the Camino was wise to us Bus Pilgrims.  When he opened the albergue he asked first to place those who walked.  Then he placed those of us who bussed our way here.  Smart guy!  Anyway Portugelete has a nice beach and great big rocks that one can have a picnic on which we did.  We met  family there who had a dog named Doggie which I thought was cute.  Spanish people giving the dog an english name of its species.  The next dog I get will be named Perreo( Spanish word for dog)

Hello from Gernika - July 21

It has been a while since I have accessed a computer so this is a catch up post.

The sun has been out for 3.days  This is pretty special because when I left Irun the rain started and persisted for 10 days.  The way is difficult with the mud and rain.  The highest climb from Irun to San Sebastian was about 525 m but it was straight up and straight down.  Not nice on bad knees.  Since it was raining in San Sebastian we just walked through.  The city is beautiful, very much a tourist stop and the beach is to die for.  Too bad I couldn't enjoy the water.

I am walking with a woman from Ireland.  She has a guide book which is great.  The one I bought from the St. James group in London England was useless.  It had no maps and the layout was very confusing.  I threw it away!

Our next stop was Zarautz just 23K from San Sebastian.  The climb was slow but steady this time and only 375 m.  We saw the sun break through the clouds in Zararutz as we waited for the Albergue to open at 5.  So off we went to the beach for a swim.  It was great.

Deba, the next stop was a real treat.  Again a beach town but for some reason I never got to the sand.  Can't remember why.  This is an interesting town full of steep streets with the centre of the city at ground level.  The streets are so steep that they actually have elevators bult into the rock.  The day was up and down big time even through the elevation reached just over 200m.  There were five climbs and then the decent into Deba.

The next day ended in Markina after another series of ups and downs.  As high as 500m this time.

 

Today is Gernika.  What a story this town has.  It was destroyed, at least 2/3s of it was, by Hitlar and Franco in 1937.  Yes before the WWII was really booming.  The two miserable men made an agreement that the Germans could use this city as target practice for the German war ships.  (The U.S. did the same thing with one of the Hawiian islands called Molokai except no people were killed as far as I know)  Franco did not alert the people of Gernika about the raid and 2700 people and two-thirds of the city were distroyed.  Picasso has a famous painting of the horror that I will try to attach to this post.

Gernika is now a lovely city but all of the historic buildings from before the raid are gone of course.  My pain of the walk obviously left my body when I read this story on the city hall building.

The image says it all.  You can google the image and or the histry of the bombing.  More later on my next computer stop.

Here I am again, In Spain

It is Friday the 15th of July and this is my third day here.  On my first day I took advantage of my stong legs and a good map and walked all around the old City.  I really enjoyed the easy ways of the people and all the little food shops selling the most beautiful fruit and veggies.  I had my first chocolate croissant of the trip ' yum, had a siesta and left again for more walking.

Yesterday It rained all day so I took advantage of the tourist bus deal.  I saw all of the great sights of Barcelona, hopping on and off the bus when I felt like I wanted to visit up close and personal with a building or a park.  I fulfilled my dream of touching a Goudi creation.  OMG the arcitecute in Barcelona is beautiful.
This is a pretty spectacular city but what surprises me is how new it is.   The small old city goes back centruies of course but there has been a great deal of development since the late 1800´s and early 1900´s.  Even more was been done for the recent Olympic games.  As with most cities hosting the games, old neighbourhoods were torn down here, people evectided from their homes and since the games, money-commerce has taken over those spots.  One nice thing is that beaches have been revived without the highrises blocking access.  Well enough about that.
 

Today,  I spent most of the day at the Picasso Museum.  What a great display.  There was, just by chance, a special collection on view of his works from Paris and a few private collections.  The show was about his yer
ars in Paris starting in 1900.  He was young and learning from the artists of the day.  The main gallery shows his works from the 30s on.  He appears to be quite a character.  The rain left overnight and today was beautiful.  I walked around, including time in the gallery for about 6.5 hours visiting parts I didn´t see on the bus or on previous walks.  I plan tonight to walk over to the Gaudi Cathedral now that I know where it is.
I leave on the train at 7.30 in the morning and reach Irun at 1.50  I will stay there and my plan is to go to San Sebastian the next day.  I understand it is worth a day or two so I might just stay for a couple of nights.
I met some young men from London Ont here at the hostel yesterday and one of them leaves for the Frances either this September or next September depending on his job.  He downloaded my book, Planning Your Camino 'Preparing The Way, as we talked.  It was cool!
So I will be on my own until I meet people who wnat to share their walk.  No problem being by myself on a Camino, it won´t be for long.

¨¨Talk with you in a few days.